


no choir

by redrobinhood



Series: Foxes and Senators [5]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Post-Order 66, Retrospective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-01
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:27:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26238592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redrobinhood/pseuds/redrobinhood
Summary: Fox grapples with his promises of love and his oath of duty in the early days of the Empire, finding that he must choose between Riyo or serving a corrupt government.
Relationships: Riyo Chuchi/CC-1010 | Fox
Series: Foxes and Senators [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1888375
Comments: 85
Kudos: 78





	1. no choir

**Author's Note:**

> I said it would be two weeks until this dropped then wrote 5,000 words of this and 2,000 new words for Age of Heroes over the weekend so two weeks = two days.

It had been one month. One month since the war had ended. One month since the Galactic Empire was founded. One month since the Great Jedi Purge. It was the beginning of the dark times and the fall of democracy. It was the end of the Republic. But for Riyo, it was the twentieth night in a row that she had woken up in Fox’s arms. She had been counting. In all the chaos of the new government it was now easier for him to slip away to her in the evenings and to stay gone all night. They had a routine. He would arrive a little after 19:00, strip out of his armor, then help her make dinner. After dinner, they would curl up on the couch and watch the HoloNet until the petting became too much or they had nothing else to talk about and they would retire to the bedroom. Then, Fox would hold Riyo in his arms and whisper sweet nothings into her ear until they were ready to sleep. Occasionally the roles were swapped, with Riyo holding Fox against her chest and reaffirming her love to him until his breathing slowed down into sleep.

Last night had been one of those first types of nights, which is how Riyo found herself awakening to a rough hand running softly over her hips. She kept her eyes closed for a few more moments, savoring the touch and the last remainder of sleep. If it weren’t for Fox, she could have never kept such a schedule as she did now. Before, she had stayed up until the chronometer had ticked over into a new day before thinking of retiring. Now, she was going to bed long before the new day and waking up with the sun, if not before it. The crazy things she did for the man she loved.

“Good morning.” She groaned, refusing to open her eyes. She wrapped her arms around his torso and pulled herself into his chest, breathing him in as she pressed her forehead against his beating heart.

“Good morning.” He mumbled back, smoothing down her untamed hair. “You need a shower.”

“Join me?” She almost didn’t have to ask. The morning shower had also become a part of their routine. Riyo’s shower wasn’t small, but it was certainly intended for only one being. Neither of them minded, and Riyo often found herself laying her head against Fox’s chest or back. The shower gave her a few extra minutes to hold him before reality set back in. Besides, it was harder to push him out of the warm water flow than it was to join him in it.

After the shower, Fox would shave while Riyo dried her hair and put it into one of the many elaborate traditional Pantoran hairstyles that she utilized as part of her senatorial regalia. Fox would finish first then ‘help’ her by tugging down on one section of parted hair and kissing her until she unwillingly pushed him away. While she pretended to be offended by the fervent displays of affection, she was still craving his touch. She hoped that this feeling wouldn’t fade away over time, or worse, be replaced by apathy.

While she didn’t trust Fox with dinner, he had gotten the hang of cooking breakfast and she found herself emerging from the bathroom to any number of breakfast foods that he had found in her fridge. It had taken a few weeks for Fox to adjust to eating anything but ration bars and barracks food, but she had a feeling that one day she might trust him to cook a good dinner.

“How are the boys?” She asked once he had sat down to eat with her.

"Just as overwhelmed as I am. We were made to fight wars, not found governments.”

“Wouldn’t you suppose that the founding of a new government may be the reason for a war?”

She loved the smile that Fox’s lips formed when she challenged him. Very few beings had ever challenged the head of the Coruscant Guard, and as far as she knew, she was the only one whose challenged he liked.

“Too much free-thought, not enough following orders.” He waved his hand in faux dismissal. “You don’t teach your gun the fundamentals of a fair government.”

“Perhaps that is why we have found ourselves in the situation we are in now.” She watched his expression carefully. He had been guarded on his thoughts on the new administration and she wasn’t fully comfortable criticizing their new government. She still considered herself to be loyal to the Republic, now Empire, after all. She just disagreed with them on some of the finer points. Like that her democracy had become an empire.

“It’s been a month. Change doesn’t happen overnight. And the Emperor did end the Clone Wars.”

“And then arrested sixty-three senators who stood against him.”

"They stood against the Empire, not the Emperor. I know that some of them were your friends, but they were traitors. If you continue to try to associate with them an investigation will be opened.”

And that was the sticking point. Riyo had been cleared from her preliminary investigation rather quickly due to the commanders of the Coruscant Guard vouching for her character and her own sworn loyalty to the Empire. But if the investigation was reopened, they would be discovered. She and Fox had been subtle, but not subtle enough to hide their affair from anyone who looked further than the surface.

"I know.” She sighed. “I will try to concern myself with things that I can change rather than those that I cannot.”

“Speaking of which, we should be going.” He gathered their empty plates from the bar as Riyo slipped on her shoes. When she straightened back up he was ready with her datapad in one hand and his helmet tucked under his arm. Officially, Fox escorted her to the Senate every morning because she had asked for a bodyguard. The requested time was one that was unlucrative to many, if not all, of the men and Fox had kindly taken the billet after two days of no response. Unofficially, Fox had provided her with the most inconvenient time frame for her request, one that only he or Commander Thire could have reasonably fulfilled. Not that Thire would have taken the posting either. He was at the Emperor’s constant beck and call, a role that was wearing him down. That left Commander Fox to retrieve the senator and provide protection against any remaining Separatist sympathizers, or worse, anti-Imperialists. Of course, her worries had been completely fictitious. It just made for a better cover story for their close relations as far as the public knew. As for the Coruscant Guard, Riyo was certain that every man who was in the office on a day to day basis knew about them. If they didn’t, that was likely due to purposeful obliviousness.

“Thank you, Fox.” She accepted the datapad and a kiss on the cheek from him, his newly scarred lips brushing gently against her skin. She really hoped that he would never grow out of the overindulgent kissing. She’d learned very quickly that his love language was touch after he practically melted the first time she’d lain a hand on his shoulder. Riyo wouldn’t have called herself a touch-starved being, but she certainly was more distant in the Senate than she was back home. Thus, she had taken to this language with ease, enjoying the warm feeling of his flesh beneath her touch. Of course, there was also his armor, but she was afraid that he was giving her a complex regarding men in uniform.

He put his helmet on and stepped out of the door before her, waiting for her to activate her security and close the door behind her before he spoke again. “What are you working on today?” He asked as if it wasn’t the same thing she’d been working on for the past week.

"Still switching Pantora over to the new Imperial regulations. What about you?” She asked as if it wasn’t the same thing he’d been working on for the past month.

“Still the riots. And our presence is not helping the public’s stance on clones.”

“Ah, yes. That’s why COMPNOR is rebranding the force, right?”

When they reached her speeder, she remained standing as Fox ducked underneath the chassis to check for bombs.

“Yes, the stormtrooper program.” He said as he came back up empty-handed. “We’re not clones anymore, we’re storms.”

“Menacing.” She taunted as she leapt into the passenger’s seat. She waited until he was settled and they were above the city before continuing. “I’ve heard rumors that they’re going to start recruitment of non-clones into the program.”

“In the long run, yes, that’s the plan. I personally don’t think they’ll follow through on it after they see the first trials. Even Commander Cody couldn’t train a nat-born to be as proficient as we are.” Riyo had never met Marshal Commander Cody, but she knew him from the stories Fox had told of them growing up on Kamino. His reputation gave the prediction a hefty weight.

“Have you never heard of the phrase ‘quantity over quality’, Commander?” She teased, though she agreed with his opinion on the matter.

“Yes, Senator, but to be quite frank with you: we’re the best.” He cast her a sly look, or at least that was the body-language that so often accompanied a sly look.

“Oh, I know.” She reached over with her leg and tapped her knee against his. That was one of the most affectionate things she could do to him in public. Even in their offices they had to take some caution. She’d never realized how little clones cared for privacy until Stone walked into Fox’s office without knocking in the middle of a make-out session. She’d been in Fox’s lap at the time, mid-kiss, and had a front row view of Stone patiently holding out a datapad between them for Fox to sign. After that they stopped meeting in Fox’s office.

When they arrived at the Senate, Fox escorted her to her office, half a step behind her on her right. If she’d had to make a list of things she loved about him, this would be one of them. She’d never had other senators move out of her way so quickly as they did when Fox was with her. At her office, she took his hand in gratitude, giving him three quick squeezes before letting go. That was the other way she could show affection to him in public, by hidden movements in formal gestures.

“Thank you very much, Commander Fox. I shall see you tomorrow?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

They rarely spoke when out in public. It would be too easy for one of them to slip up and say something intimate. Besides, it kept their relationship looking strictly professional. No one else needed to know that she would see him again that evening for some unprofessional relations.

* * *

“How’s Riyo?”

“How’s janitorial duty?”

“Don’t try that with us.”

“We both know that we don’t have the manpower for punishments.”

Fox tried his best to glare at the two men sitting opposite his desk, but they had a point. They had lost too many men in the Jedi Purge.

“How’s Riyo?” Rys asked again.

“Ask her yourself.” Fox said.

“But she’s not here, so we’re asking you.” Jek shrugged.

“Where’s Thire?” Fox countered.

“The Emperor’s office.”

“Came in, checked his messages, and left just before you arrived according to the night shift.” Rys continued.

“Maybe they were awake after all.” Thire stepped into the office, holding a datapad with the Emperor’s seal across the back. “Looked like they were all dead on their feet this morning.”

Fox bit back a retort. Thire looked dead on his feet as well most days. Before the Empire, Thire had been able to get through most of the day before the misery set in. Fox used to be able to pinpoint the cause of the energy drain as working for the Chancellor and the high focus that came from serving him. Now, Fox could do nothing to alleviate the commander’s stress. The two of them were stretched too thin. If Thire had taken off his helmet, Fox would’ve seen dull, sunken eyes and too-prominent cheekbones. But he would never call him out for it in front of the men. “Thire, are you alright?” Fox gestured for Thire to sit, which was refused with a short wave of the hand.

“I’m fine, Fox. I just need a moment alone with you.”

On the word ‘alone’, Jek and Rys shot up, saluting their commanding officers before leaving. Thire didn’t move towards the empty chairs.

“What is it?” Fox asked, gesturing once more for Thire to sit.

Thire continued to stand. “Darth Vader would like to speak to you.”

Fox shot Thire a quizzical look. “Darth Vader? Who is that?”

“He… I don’t know. He works for the Emperor.” Thire had never tried to lie to Fox before, and Fox decided that he wouldn’t push him today. If it was something he needed to know, Thire would tell him. Better to let a bad lie slip away than train Thire to be a good liar. “He was in the briefing this morning. He said that he wants your assistance tracking down a Jedi.”

Now that was something he needed to know. Fox hesitantly took the datapad from Thire and began to scan over the Jedi’s file. His initial glance complete he turned his attention back to Thire. “Take me to Darth Vader.”


	2. we had it for a moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fox returns to Riyo with his new assignment- the lockdown of the Jedi Temple.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of this chapter is fleshing out the ideas I came up with for ‘catch me i’m falling’ and if you’re into angst I recommend checking that out. But if you don’t know what happens to Fox in canon, keep it that way and you’ll be happier in life. Should also mention that this works as a sequel to my 'illicit affairs' so check that out. (or don't, I won't tell you what to do)
> 
> Also! Because the last “scene” in this chapter came to me in the shower I totally threw off my whole plan for this fic so it’ll probably be longer than six chapters now. Same plot, more fleshing out.

“What’s on your mind?” Riyo began to lower herself back onto the bed beside Fox. Instead, Fox reached over and pulled her down so that she lay on top of him once more. She draped her arms over his shoulders, putting her weight into her forearms so as to not dig her elbows into his ribs as she propped herself up on his chest. “There’s something bothering you.”

“I have a new assignment.”

“Something dangerous?”

“A Jedi.” He watched her expression morph from concern into alarm. “We lock down the Jedi Temple again, starting tomorrow afternoon.”

“Have you been back since-?”

“Since the Temple burned? No.” He hadn’t even been the one initially assigned to the Temple. Commander Stone had gone with the riot team to keep civilians out. But the team hadn’t considered that the 501st wouldn’t be able to keep all the Jedi in. By the time Fox got there, the team had been nearly destroyed. He had arrived just in time to watch a Jedi bury her blade in Stone’s chest. He had died in Fox’s arms.

Riyo took in his gaze for a few moments before she removed her arms from his shoulders and pushed herself forward so that she could press her lips into the soft flesh underneath his jaw. He welcomed the distraction, tangling a hand up in her hair. He’d never known that women smelled so good until he’d lived with Riyo. Of course, he’d been familiar with the general concept, but nothing could’ve prepared him for all the different scents of hair products and soap and lotion and even the scent of makeup on her face. If he didn’t shower in the morning, they’d have been found out in a heartbeat.

“I love you.” He sighed.

“You’d better.” She murmured against his skin before pushing herself up to look him in the eye. “I love you too.”

He pulled her back down, rolling over to the side and tangling their legs together as he held her against him, one arm sufficient to keep her pinned. “I know that you don’t like me bringing up my own mortality, but I want you to know that if I die on this assignment that the past few months have been the happiest months of my life.”

She huffed and tried to unsuccessfully untangle herself from his arms before giving in. “Mine too, Fox. But I still want more of them, you hear me?”

“What was that? Your voice is all muffled.”

“I said, I don’t really care either way.”

“Wow. When Darth Vader strangles me to death tomorrow I’ll be sure to remember that.”

“Don’t guilt trip me, Fox.” She squirmed one arm out of his hold and reached up to cup his jaw in her hand. “I truly, deeply, love you, CC-1010.”

“Oh, I’m in trouble now?”

“Yes, very bad trouble.”

"How exciting.” Keeping a tight hold around her body he began to run his free hand down her back. Her skin was so soft, unbroken by scars, and sometimes he wondered how a creature as soft as she could love one whose body had been so ruined. How could she bear to kiss him when the touch was interrupted by the raw scar across his lips? Did she know that it came from the blade of the Jedi who had killed Stone?

“I’ve been thinking about getting a tattoo, you know.”

“Oh?” That had been the last direction he’d expected this conversation to go in. “And what sort of tattoo do you fancy?”

“A fox, Fox. I want to tattoo your namesake on me. Right here.” She moved away from him and placed her hand underneath her breast. “A little white fox running across my skin. Will you still love me if I do that?”

“Of course I will still love you.”

“Then why do you think that your scars would be any different? Don’t deny it, I can read your mind. No matter what happens to your body I will still love you just as much as I always have.”

Fox sighed and slid down so that their faces were level. “What if my brain was taken out of my body and you could only communicate with me by whooping?”

“Then we would have the most interesting conversations about the universe.” She rubbed her nose against his for a moment before tucking her head under his chin and wrapping an arm across his waist. “Go to sleep, Fox. You’ll need to be in top form tomorrow.”

He rolled over onto his back, pulling her with him so that she was pillowed in his chest as she had been the first night he’d held her. He leaned his head against hers, breathing in the scent of her shampoo. “I’m always in top form.” He murmured. When he held her like this, he could let all of his thoughts drift away. Tonight, only one remained with him; nobody, not even Darth Vader, could take him from her.

* * *

Riyo jolted awake with a cry. Before she could fully register that she was awake, that the nightmare was gone, or where she was, she found herself being pulled into Fox’s arms and held against him. She reached up, fumbling for his neck, and pressed one hand against his spine. She could feel the soft exhales of his breath against her forearm.

"I’m here, _cyar’ika_ , I’m here.”

“Tell your men not to fire on the one with the red lightsaber. Please, Fox.” Her voice broke on his name and she began to sob.

He reached over and cupped her face in one hand before he brought her head down onto his shoulder. He leaned his own head against hers and began to run his thumb over the green arcs of her cheeks. “What did you dream, _cyar’ika_?”

"You were dead. He snapped-.” She stopped as her sobs became hiccups and Fox began to rub circles into her back. “He snapped your neck. Just like that. You fell. I watched you fall.”

“Who snapped my neck, Ri?” His steady voice held no hint of fear.

“A shadow. I watched you fall.”

“But I’m right here, Riyo. _Cyare_ Riyo, I’m still here.” He took her hand in his and placed it against his chest. “I live, I breathe, can’t you feel my heartbeat?”

She pressed her hand into his sternum and tried to focus on the beating beneath her palm and the slow rise and fall of Fox’s chest. Her hiccupping sobs were becoming quieter, but she couldn’t stop the flood of tears streaming down her cheeks. Fox lifted his head from hers and began to kiss her cheeks. “I’m alive, Riyo. _Ner ka’ra, ner me’suum’ika._ ”

“I don’t know what you’re saying.” She managed to get out between sobs. “If I find out that you’ve been calling me a rat this whole time-.” The threat died to a tiny sob. She could feel Fox’s chest begin to shake beneath her as he fought off laughter. “Don’t laugh at me! I’m distraught.”

“Do you really think that I would take advantage of you like that?” She could look right into his eyes now; that beautiful dark brown that reminded her of home. How she wished she could take him to Pantora, take him anywhere but here.

“No, I don’t.” The little flare of anger had cleared away her hiccupping sobs, but it had not wiped the tears from her cheeks. “I trust you, Fox.”

“Then brush your hair and put on some civvies.”

She glanced towards her chronometer. “It’s nearly four-am and I’m a mess.”

“I’ll clean you up. Trust me.” He spoke with such confidence that she couldn’t help but give in.

“If I agree, you have to tell me what you’ve been calling me.”

“It’s a deal.”

* * *

The second-to-last place that Riyo had expected to go was into the Lower Levels. The last place was the Emperor’s home or office, but the Lower Levels were certainly a very close second. Despite the late hour, the streets were far from empty, though certainly not as crowded as they were in daytime. She and Fox wove through the crowd with his hand wrapped snugly around her waist, no different than the number of similarly hooded couples walking through the streets around them. She could almost imagine that they were one of them, if she could only shake the awareness that if Fox’s hood fell down the charade would be over. A clone was always recognizable as a clone, even in civvies.

“You still haven’t told me where we’re going.”

“You don’t need to know, Ri. Besides, we’re here.” He pulled her into the shadows of one of the alleys that snaked between the rundown buildings. They stopped before a beaten old door and knocked. Riyo snuck a quick look around the deserted alley as they waited. If it weren’t for Fox at her side, she would’ve felt unsafe. Even with him, she felt uneasy, though she was certain that she had watched him slip a holster around his waist before they left. After about a minute the door was unlocked and they were practically dragged inside a tight hallway by an elderly female Twi’lek.

“Commander Fox!” She exclaimed once the door had been shut and locked behind them. She clapped her hands on Fox’s shoulders as Fox lowered his hood. “It’s been too long.”

“It has. But you know how things have been recently. Ri, this is Sienn.”

Riyo pulled down her hood before shaking Sienn’s hand. “A pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine. The commander has never brought a lady by before, or anyone for that matter. I keep telling him to bring some of the boys in white down here but he never does.”

“You don’t want them here. They’ll eat and drink you out of house and home.” Fox waved his hand in dismissal, a gesture that Riyo knew too well from spending her afternoons in his office.

"Speaking of which, let’s get you something to drink. Mariela, come back here and say hello to our guests!”

Another elderly female Twi’lek poked her head through a door and gestured at Sienn. “Come mind the bar while I say hello.” The two switched places, the swinging door bringing the scent of caf into the hall, and now it was Mariela’s turn to clap her hands on Fox’s shoulders. “It’s been a while, Commander Fox. I was beginning to think you’d forgotten all about us.”

“Never. Mariela, this is Ri. We needed to get out for a while.”

Mariela nodded knowingly. “Whatever it is you’re mixed up in, I don’t need to know about it. Are you quite alright, dear?” She asked Riyo, who felt thankful that Fox was trying his best to hide her identity.

"It’s been a long night, ma’am.”

“Oh, don’t ‘ma’am’ me, we’re all friends here. Let me get you something to drink. The usual, Commander?”

"Please.”

“And for you, dear?”

Riyo blinked, racking her mind for the name of a drink, any drink. “Do you have anything with chocolate?”

“I know exactly what you need. Wait here, it’ll only be a moment.” Mariela swooped back through the door. Riyo and Fox remained silent as they waited, though Fox had taken a hold of Riyo’s hand and was running his fingers across her palm. When Mariela returned, she was carrying two brightly patterned mugs, which she passed to them. “On the house.” She declared.

Riyo began to protest but Mariela wouldn’t let her.

“You’re welcome to the rooftop. Just leave the mugs by the kitchen door when you leave, okay?”

“Thank you, Mariela.” Fox said. “And give Sienn my thanks as well.”

Riyo watched Mariela leave, catching a glimpse at a cramped café behind the door. Despite the early hour, or late hour, a few beings lingered in the shop. Then the door closed, and that world was gone to her. She was in Fox’s world now. She followed him to a turbolift, to a staircase, onto the roof of the building, then to a blanketed spot where she could sit beside him.

“So, what did you do to earn eternal free caf?” She asked once she was comfortably leaning against his shoulder.

“Thorn and I saved their tooka from a fire.”

“Their tooka?”

"Mhm.” He had a faraway look in his eyes. “We were out after our shifts ended for some drinks. We heard the commotion from the bar, followed the sound to the fire, and decided that the Coruscant Guard never leaves anyone behind. One tooka rescue later and we all went back to the bar together. Ran into them again a month later and they told us to stop by their new café.”

Riyo couldn’t help the giggle that rose in her throat and was rewarded with a kind smile from Fox. “You’re kidding.”

“Tooka’s name is Fenn. She likes to sleep in the front window of the café.”

“Fox. You are such a sweetheart.” Her giggles faded into comfortable silence as they began to sip at their caf. Finally, she couldn’t take the silence anymore. “What did you call me earlier, back in bed?”

“ _Ner ka’ra,_ my stars, _ner me’suum’ika_ , my moon.”

“What about _cyar’ika_? What’s that?”

He turned to look at her, his eyes tracing over the curves of her face. “ _Cyar’ika_ I will keep to myself for now.”

“I’ll ask Jek and Rys if you don’t tell me.”

“You should, they’ve missed seeing you. They ask about you all the time.”

“I’ll bring some sweets by again sometime.”

“Please. They need the morale boost.” He waited for her to take a sip from her mug before he continued. “Are you okay?”

She sighed, her breath rippling across the liquid before her. “I’m worried about you. I would give anything, anything, Fox, to run away and to take you far away from here.” But she couldn’t.

“Riyo, I could never take you away from your post, from your people. They need your voice in the Senate just as much as my brothers need me.” He lay his hand on her thigh. “If that ever changes, know that I will be right there by your side. But right now, they need us.”

She turned to look him in the eye. “Fox, did I ever tell you how much I love your blind loyalty?”

“You’ve mentioned it a few times, yes.”

“Well, I love your blind loyalty. And I could never ask you to go against your beliefs.” Her drink finished, she threw an arm around Fox and lay her head on his shoulder. “Never change, my love.”

Fox wrapped his arm around her for a moment, drawing her in before letting her go as he prepared to rise to his feet. “We should head back. I have a meeting with the Emperor I cannot miss.” If there was the quiver of a lie in his voice it was lost in the rustle of cloaks in the breeze.


	3. pleasure of your company

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riyo decides to pay some old friends a visit and realizes how much things have changed.

Fox stalked through the halls of the Senate building. It was quieter now than it was during the time of the Republic. No one trusted anyone anymore. Which may have been for the best. Many senators who had spoken out against the formation of the Empire now backstabbed each other to gain favor with it. Fox despised them. There was no point in having morals if they were discarded and reformed every time they were challenged. And everyone had been challenged. Perhaps that was why he hated those anti-Imperialist senators with a passion, because they had been willing to compromise their morals in the face of destruction while he had stuck to his morals and regretted it all the same.

Fives had been right about the inhibitor chips, and while Fox had wished that he had listened to him it wouldn’t have changed a thing. He had no chip; the fault was his own. Perhaps it wasn’t him. The dreamlike state he found himself in at times could not be the real him. Yet all the same, it had been his hands.

The Royal Guard let him into the Emperor’s office without protest, he was well known to them. He had spent the first week following the formation of the Empire going in and out of the Emperor’s office. Or at least, he thought he did. It was all a blur.

“Commander Fox.” The helmeted shadow that was Darth Vader acknowledged his arrival, though he did not turn from the window to face him.

“Lord Vader.” He addressed the man as he’d been taught, though he couldn’t remember when the lesson had occurred. A quick glance around the room told him that he and Vader were the sole occupants. He could’ve commented on the Emperor’s absence, but thought it best to leave it unspoken.

“You have prepared your men for the lockdown of the Jedi Temple?”

“Yes, Lord Vader. Sir, I don’t want to overstep my bounds, but a little more information about who we’re facing may give us a tactical edge.”

When Vader turned around and their helmeted eyes met Fox’s blood ran cold.

“You already know all that you must, Commander Fox. In the past, have you not given more than enough effort in cases that you knew less about?”

“I don’t follow, Lord Vader.”

“The Tano case.”

Fox bit down a protest. The taste of blood filled his mouth as he bit down on the inside of his lip to prevent himself from speaking. There had been ample evidence to indict Ahsoka Tano for the deaths and mutilations of his brothers. Except for the accounts later given by his wounded brothers that the fallen Jedi Barriss Offee had committed the acts. But those had never gone to the trial. He remained silent as he tried to remember why they had been blocked from speaking at the trial. Growing impatient, Darth Vader crossed the room in a few swift strides until he stood right before the commander. Fox flinched as the Sith raised a hand to shake a finger at him.

“I trust you to do better this time, Commander. Do not fail me again.”

Again? To the best of his knowledge, Fox had never served this man before. Although, he mused, it was not unlikely that he just didn’t remember it. “Yes, sir.”

Darth Vader turned back to the window, and Fox took that as his cue to leave. As Fox walked out of the Emperor’s office he had a sinking feeling that Riyo’s dream may have been a prediction.

* * *

Riyo left the halls of the Senate as soon as she could. It had been a long morning of meetings and the drab atmosphere of the Convocation Chamber was wearing her down in a way it hadn’t before. Then again, before she’d had friends. She’d had Padme. Now, she barely spoke to her fellow delegates for fear of being labelled a traitor to the Empire. She could not abandon the Empire so quickly, and she could have never dragged Fox down with her. Perhaps she would be imprisoned, but he would certainly be executed with no trial. She tried to bury her thoughts of poison vials and firing squads as her speeder descended into one of the many markets of Coruscant and she made her way to the stand she knew so well.

“Senator Chuchi.” The elderly Pantoran woman greeted her. Riyo would’ve been embarrassed to admit that after all this time she still did not know her name. “What will you be purchasing today?”

“The usual, ma’am.” Riyo said, pulling out the credits from a pouch at her hips.

“You have fine taste, my dear.” The woman said as credits and tins were exchanged. One full of ‘those golden ones’ that the Guard enjoyed so much, and the other an assortment of whatever other sweets the stand had that day.

“My friends do. Thank you.” Clutching the tins to her chest as if they were made of gold, Riyo made her way back to her speeder and set off to the Senate. She wished Fox were with her. He’d be sitting in the passenger seat laughing about how she was going to ruin their cover story but doing nothing to stop her. She’d give anything to take a casual ride around the city with Fox, to watch him lean back in the seat with his hair flowing in the breeze. But their chances of being caught were too high.

Once she was back within the confines of the Senate, she made her way to the offices of the Coruscant Guard. The office was emptier than usual. They used to always have at least ten men in the foyer, most at work, a few on break, but now only two men sat in front of the many computer terminals. Neither one looked up at her entrance.

“Knock knock?” She asked as she came to stand behind Rys.

“Senator Chuchi!” Jek exclaimed as the two men jumped to their feet.

With a laugh she set down the tins and wrapped her arms around Rys, then reached over the desk to hug Jek. “Do you mind if I join you?”

“Not at all!” Rys gathered up the piles of datapads and flimsiplast next to him and dumped them on the other side of the desk so that she could sit beside him. “How are you, Senator Chuchi?”

“I’m well, all things considered. How are you two?”

“Horrible, we’ve been promoted.” Jek shrugged.

“Congratulations! How is that a bad thing?”

Jek held up a datapad. “Captains do more homework.”

“Captains.” She mused. “Captain Rys and Captain Jek. I like the sound of that!”

“So we do.” Rys assured her. “But it was a rough transition.”

“Says the man nominated for ARC training.” Jek scoffed. “I reckon Rys is in line to be commander. There’s no way we can continue on with only Commander Fox and Commander Thire, they’re wearing themselves to the bone. Though I am sure you’ve heard all about it.”

Riyo took a moment to open a tin and pop a sweet into her mouth. “I have no idea what you are talking about. I barely see Commander Thire.”

Rys elbowed her softly. “And Commander Fox?”

“Whom?”

“Surely you’ve seen him around, ma’am. Red armor, power-walk, permanent look of disappointment?” Jek asked.

“The first two ring a bell, but that ‘permanent’ look of disappointment sounds like it’s reserved only for you two.” She teased. “Oh! I have a question for you. What does _cyar’ika_ mean?”

She watched as the blood drained from their faces.

“He’s not calling me a rat, is he?” She prompted.

“No, ma’am.” Rys managed. “But, that’s a little above our paygrade.”

“Well, I won’t bring the wrath of permanently disappointed Commander Fox down upon you.” She brought up the datapad that she had tucked into the waistband of her pants. “Do you mind if I stick around for a while?”

“Please.”

So she stayed. Occasionally the three would make light chatter, or ask someone to pass one of the sweet tins, but their focus had turned back to their work. After the past month of lonely days in her office, Riyo found it nice to work with friends- even if they were all working on different things. Rys was working on sitreps for the Coruscant Guard, Jek was going over the necessary security details that would be needed in the upcoming month, and Riyo was trying to open a channel of communication between textile artists on Mygeeto and silk farmers on Pantora. It would’ve been easier if either side had an updated comm-station, and she made a mental note that she would have to request one for the Pantoran silk farmers as part of the new Imperial regulation. The Empire was determined to bring everyone into the current century. Though she agreed with the ideals and regulations as far as they brought aid to worlds in poverty, it hurt her to see the traditional ways of so many beings discarded.

She stayed at work there until Rys was summoned by Fox over comms. With a final embrace, she left her two friends and went back to her own office to finish her day. There, she sat down and kicked her feet up on the couch she kept against the window on what had formerly been the entertaining side of her office. She didn’t think that she’d entertain guests anymore, at least, not for a very long time. She was able to remotely connect to her computer terminal from here and lay back while waiting for her datapad and terminal to sync. The sound of her office door opening surprised her, but that turned to delight when she saw a set of red armor step in and lock the door behind him.

“Fox.” She stayed seated as he set his helmet on her desk and made his way across the room to her.

“Riyo.” He perched on the couch next to her, careful not to crush her legs under the weight of his armor. “I heard I missed you at the office earlier.”

“Yes. Not to worry, I didn’t distract your captains for too long.”

“I wasn’t worried. They need a break, which is more than I can give them.”

“You weren’t lying when you told me that you’re understaffed. Is it really just you four in the office now?”

“Most days.” He admitted. “Though I’d say three. Thire’s with the Emperor most of the day.”

“That’s not good, Fox. Are they sending you more men?”

“They will. The Emperor knows that we’re stretched too thin. He’ll give me more men when the time is right.” Fox turned to look out the window across the city. Riyo took a few moments to appreciate the golden glow of the afternoon sun across his features. The Pantorans worshipped a moon goddess, but Riyo found herself gravitating towards the sun, her lover. Surely, that sun god was Fox.

“You’re beautiful.” She said.

He turned to look at her, one eye still golden in the sun, the other brown in the shade. The shiny scar across his lips and those on his neck reflected light like gold veins running through his skin. “I’m nothing special.”

“Yes, you are.” She protested. “You’re mine, and that makes you special.”

“Thank the Kaminii for picking a good genetic donor.”

“Maybe I will.” She reached over and grabbed the top of his blacks to pull him into a kiss. He followed her lead without protest, tangling a hand in her hair as their lips met. Even after all this time, he still kissed her like he had the first time; soft open-mouthed kisses that almost frustrated her in their tenderness. “Will you be back tonight?” She asked after he had pulled away.

“If all goes well, yes. I should be back around midnight.”

“I’ll wait up for you.”

* * *

And she did. When the chronometer read 23:50 she rose from the couch to prepare herself for bed, leaving behind the view of the Jedi Temple from her window. Tonight, she had stared at it until the sun went down and she could no longer pick out the little white shapes that moved around it. A month ago, she had sat here in her living room and watched the Temple burn through the night. She hadn’t been concerned for Fox at the time, but the following week had tested her resolve as the Republic was replaced by the Empire and her only glimpses of Fox were fleeting glances across the room as he went about his duties by the Emperor’s side. He had finally come to her a week later in her office, empty eyed and quiet with a row of stitches across his lips. The marks had faded well, and the stitches had never stopped him from pressing the unwounded side of his lips against her.

She wondered if she was the moon goddess tonight, waiting for her lover to return with the dawn. Perhaps not literally dawn, but she felt like she had been waiting all night for him. She knew there was a myth putting the moon goddess in the same situation, but she couldn’t remember now if the sun had returned to her. But that was how the world would end, she remembered that much. The sun’s injuries would be too severe for him to rise again, and the world would be plunged into eternal darkness as the moon goddess scorned her creation. She had never understood that when she was a child. Now she did.

She was pulling out the last of her bobby pins when she heard the muffled explosion. She ran to the living room to watch as a plume of smoke rose from the side of the Jedi Temple. She could’ve sworn she saw a green blade dancing with a red one amongst the smoke. She bit down a rush of fear at the sight of the red lightsaber. She could see the clones firing too, and she prayed that they wouldn’t fire on the red blade as they did now on the green one. She turned away from the sight, returning to the bathroom to brush out the unnatural curls that her senatorial hairstyling left behind. She had just picked up her brush when the mirror rattled with another explosion. She ran back to see smoke rising from a neighborhood bordering the Temple. Abandoning her hair, she turned on the HoloNet in search of answers. She found none.

It was now past midnight. She grabbed a blanket and curled up with pillow in her lap to watch the smoke billow into the night sky. Sleep would not find her tonight. And perhaps, the sun would not rise with the dawn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got really into the moon goddess bit at the end, enjoy some mythical symbolism.
> 
> This chapter was not meant to end on a "cliffhanger" but that was the natural break by the time I got there. (sorry)


	4. some vast unnamable fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riyo learns what happened at the Jedi Temple from an unexpected guest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, it’s been a long week but we made it here.

Riyo had been staring out the window at the billowing smoke for hours when she heard the door to her apartment slide open. She leapt off the couch to see Fox enter, practically dragging Commander Thire with him. She let out a cry of relief and ran to him, wrapping her arms around both of them in her haste.

“I thought you were dead.” She cried as she pulled away, checking over Fox’s armor for any sign of injury.

Fox reached over to caress her face, the other hand supporting Thire against his shoulder. “I’m okay, Riyo. I was in a transport the whole time, never got involved in the skirmish. But Thire…can I set him on your couch?”

"Yeah, yeah of course.” She moved to Thire’s other side and slipped his arm over her shoulders, following Fox’s lead to her couch. Even when fully supported by the two of them, Thire was shaking. She stepped back after helping Fox set him down, unsure of what boundaries to cross. Of course she knew Thire, but not in the way that she knew Jek and Rys. And he was a commander now. Untouchable. Then again, so was Fox.

Having set Thire down, Fox removed his helmet to reveal drying tear tracks across his cheeks. He gave Riyo a sad, reassuring smile, then knelt down in front of Thire to remove his helmet as well. Riyo wished he hadn’t. In the time she’d known Thire she’d never seen him helmetless without dark bags under his eyes, but now his eyes were hollow and unfocused. He reminded her too much of what Fox had looked like after the fall of the Republic. Fox began to disassemble Thire’s gauntlets and Riyo’s stomach turned as blood dripped from Thire’s gloves onto the white comm-unit on Fox’s arm. After Thire’s gauntlets had been removed, Fox removed his own then moved to sit next to Thire on the couch. He pulled Thire into his arms, placing Thire’s head on his shoulder and leaning his own head against him as he began to mutter something in Mando’a. Riyo recognized the pose as the one Fox had taken her into that morning. She sat down on Thire’s other side and began to rub his back as Fox had for her. She didn’t know if he could feel it under the armor, but she didn’t know what else to do.

After a few minutes of quiet reassurances, Fox looked over to her. “I’m so sorry, Ri. I didn’t have anywhere else to take him.”

“It’s okay.” It wasn’t okay. Not the intrusion, if it could even be called such, but that Fox had nowhere else to go. Once upon a time, he could have taken Thire back to the barracks, when the commanders had had their own room. With the Empire, that privacy was gone.

Thire muttered something that she couldn’t make out.

“No.” Fox protested.

“I found him. I saved him. This is all my fault.”

“It was not your fault, Thire.”

“If I hadn’t found him on Mustafar how many beings would still be alive, Fox? How many brothers would still be alive?” Riyo’s hand on Thire’s back stilled as she tried to take in the conversation.

“You can’t think that way.”

“It could’ve been you. It could’ve been your ship he chose.”

“But it wasn’t.” Fox snapped. “It wasn’t my ship, and it sure as hell isn’t your fault.”

“It should’ve been me. I gave the order. I should have gone with them. I should be dead too.”

“No.” Fox pulled Thire tighter against his chest, the plastoid between them squeaking with the motion. “Don’t think like that.” He begged. The three beings sat in silence for a few minutes until Fox spoke again. “Riyo, go to bed. You need to sleep.”

He was right. The numbness that had filled her inside as she stared out the window was gone and the adrenaline rush that had come upon her when she saw Fox had faded away, leaving drowsiness in its wake. She nodded and rose from the couch. “Let me bring a blanket in here.”

“Ri, we don’t usually sleep with blankets.”

“Well, I do.” She walked away before she could catch Fox’s reaction. When she returned with the comforter from her bed he was taking Thire’s boots off, having already removed his own. She set the comforter across the back of the couch and pulled the back cushions off. Before Fox could protest she slid into the void the cushions had left with the comforter in hand. “Lay down.” She ordered.

Wordlessly, Fox lay down beside her, pulling Thire down with him so that the other man lay across his chest. Riyo draped the blanket over the three of them then pressed herself against Fox’s side, resting her head against his pauldron. She could still smell the blood on Thire’s gloves, and ash from Fox’s armor, but she refused to leave Fox until the sun rose again. Eventually, she found herself slipping into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

Fox listened as Riyo’s breathing deepened and slowed into sleep. Thire was soon behind her, still pressed against Fox’s chest. Fox had never encountered Thire on Kamino, but they had all learned the same comfort mechanisms from each other. He tried to follow them into sleep, sometimes falling into a light doze, but the mangled bodies of his brothers still filled his head. Vader had told him that it had been Jocasta Nu’s doing, that she had flung his brothers from the transport in a fit of fury upon capture. But when he had found Thire kneeling over Rys’ broken body he’d had a very different story. Vader.

When dawn came, it found Fox awake. With the light of the sun peaking over the horizon and into the wide window of the living room it wasn’t long before Thire stirred in his arms, followed shortly by Riyo against his side. Fox watched Thire’s eyes open and flit around the living room.

“This isn’t the barracks.” He managed.

“No.” Fox agreed.

“You brought me to Senator Chuchi’s apartment. This is Senator Chuchi’s blanket.”

“Yeah.” Fox heard Riyo trying to stifle a light laugh into his shoulder. It didn’t work and he felt Thire tense up in his arms. “And that’s Senator Chuchi.”

Thire uttered a stream of curses that would have made any Kaminoan blush as he untangled himself from the blanket and stood up. Fox followed quickly after him and grabbed his shoulders before he could walk away. “Thire, how much do you remember from last night?”

Thire turned back to face him. “We went to the Temple, to lock it down. It worked, we caught the Jedi and Lord Vader took her away.”

“And after that?” Fox prompted.

“I briefed the Emperor about, about something.” He paused, blinking rapidly for a few moments, then looked at the dried blood on his gloves. “We were attacked?”

“No, Thire, no.” Fox pulled his little brother into his arms and held him for a moment before stepping back. “I want you to take a shower and change into fresh blacks, okay? Then we’ll talk. That’s an order.” He led Thire to the shower by his arm and left him with the spare pair of blacks Fox now kept in the apartment. When he came back to Riyo, she was in the kitchen making a pot of caf. She looked just as tired as he felt. He walked over to her and pulled her into his arms, resting his cheek on her hair.

“What’s going on, Fox?” She asked after a few moments.

He almost lied to her. _Just some nasty business with the Jedi, it’s all over now_.

“I think we lost the war, Ri.” He leaned back, keeping his arms locked around her hips, focusing his gaze on her lips and not her eyes. He couldn’t bear to see his own fear reflecting back at him from her soul. “This is not the future that my brothers died for.” They hadn’t died just so they could continue to be slaughtered at the hands of the men in command.

“Fox. That’s treason.” Her lips moved as if she wanted to say more, but she fell silent. He pulled her back into his arms.

“Probably.” He admitted. Two days ago, he would’ve arrested anyone who voiced the same thoughts he had now. But the shadow, Darth Vader, he had wielded a lightsaber with the same blade as Count Dooku once had. The Emperor would have to be warned of the infiltration into their government, he’d have to see that he’d been a pawn for some greater unknown entity. “Not a word to anyone else, okay? The Emperor’s life could be in danger. Let me handle this.”

“He’s lucky to have you watching his back.” Riyo jumped in his arms at the sound of a throat clearing across the room. She quickly composed herself and pulled away from Fox, stepping back to the now finished pot of caf. “Caf, Thire?”

“Thank you, but I can’t accept, Senator.” Thire made his way cautiously across the room, stopping to lean against the bar separating the kitchen from the living room. “I really should be going.”

“Nonsense. As your commanding officer, you must stay.” Fox passed a mug of black caf to Thire. Neither of them could stand the sweet milks that most beings preferred to mix with the drink. It was a frequent, meaningless argument that he often had with Riyo. “I still need to debrief you.”

Thire reluctantly took the mug from Fox. “What is there to debrief?”

Fox looked to Riyo first. She was frozen by his side, hair still puffy from sleep, eyes fixed on his. He knew she worried for him; he knew she would worry more if she learned that the shadow from her nightmare had descended upon Coruscant. But the small lies he told her left a bitter taste on his tongue, and this was one lie that would be found out later if told. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and looked back to Thire. “Darth Vader killed an entire transport of men last night.”

“How do you know?”

“You told me.”

“When?” Thire scoffed.

“When you were kneeling over the body of your batchmate.” It was cruel. It was very cruel. Fox could feel Riyo’s hand pressing against his stomach. Thire looked down at his hands. They were clean now, but Fox knew that they would have been stained brown just a few minutes ago. Fox continued. “You saw them fall.”

Thire pressed his hands against the back of his head and lay his forehead on the cold stone of the bar. “You’re lying.”

"You’re being manipulated. You know who Vader is and he’s trying to cover it up.”

“If he was trying to cover anything up, he’d kill me.” Thire snapped. “Yes, I know who he is, I saved his damn life, but he has never been anything but honest with me.”

“He killed our men, our brothers, and you’re defending him? He’s a traitor to the Empire.”

“I’d rather serve him than the Emperor.” Thire brought his head back up to look Fox in the eye. “It was the headaches at first, then migraines, now I can’t remember almost anything I’ve done over the past few months. I remember the gala and the assassination attempt. I remember that Lor Hano died, but I can’t remember how he died or how I know that. The clearest thing in my mind since then is the day we carried out order sixty-six and I hunted down the first being who saw me as an individual being and not a clone. I don’t remember whose command I was following but I followed it. I don’t even remember if we found him.”

“You didn’t.” Riyo spoke up. “I heard from one of my colleagues that he escaped.”

Thire’s shoulders dropped a little bit as some tension left his body.

“Why didn’t you tell me, or Stone?” Fox asked.

“I couldn’t. Serving the Chancellor was an honor. And if I gave in or cracked then he would have gone back to you, Fox. We’d have all lost you and I could never take you away from Riyo. I know about you two. I think I’ve always known, since the gala. That’s why I put you on her security detail when you were healing. I’ve lost a lot in my life, but I think that if I can save you it would all be worth it.”

“That shouldn’t be your burden.” It was all Fox could say. He couldn’t move. He felt his arm hit his side as Riyo pulled away from his and crossed the kitchen to wrap her arms around Thire’s shoulders. She was saying something to him that Fox couldn’t make out. He was going to find the being manipulating Thire, manipulating the Emperor, maybe even manipulating Vader. That being was going to pay for their crimes. Fox would make them pay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (This is why Jek was in the character tags and not Rys)


	5. no chorus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fox, Riyo, and Thire deliberate on what to do next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is somewhere I wanted to go with the last chapter but couldn’t find the words at the time so it’s here.

Thire leaned into Riyo’s embrace, closing his eyes as he tried to fight back the memories that were resurfacing. She was murmuring reassurances into his ear and for a moment he felt an intense jealousy for Fox. That jealousy rapidly disintegrated as the events of last night continued to come back to him. He remembered Fox holding him, soft words in the language he had known since birth, the argument, the numbness that had eaten him alive. Thire had known a lot of pain in his life, and he had decided that feeling pain was better than feeling nothing at all. He came back to reality to the sound of his name.

“Thire, Thire, don’t go back there.” Riyo was saying, rubbing the side of his shoulder. “Stay here. Don’t think about it.”

Thire sighed and took a long drink of the caf that had been forced upon him. He had a new resolve. “Maybe it shouldn’t be my burden, Fox. But it’s one I’ll gladly bear.” Perhaps gladly wasn’t the best word, but when compared to the utter nothingness he felt at night it suited the emotion best. He looked back down into the mug in his hands. “The five-oh-first clone you killed. Fives. We lost you for a while afterwards. If Thorn hadn’t been there, I don’t think we ever would’ve gotten you back. I can’t watch you go through that again.”

“That was different.” Fox spoke softly, and Thire knew that if he looked up he would find Fox also staring at the liquid in his cup.

“I remember what you said before you collapsed. You said, ‘it should’ve been set to stun.’ Do you remember that you collapsed?” Thire found the strength to look up and found his prediction to be true. If he hadn’t worked beside Fox for the past three years he would’ve thought that the man wasn’t listening, his concentration on avoiding eye contact was so intense.

“Only what Thorn told me.”

“I couldn’t-, I can’t let that happen again.”

“Fox.” When Riyo spoke up both men turned to look at her. “Did you kill Lor Hano?”

“Senator Chuchi, Lor Hano was killed by his own thermal detonator.” Thire said.

“And who told you that?” She asked. When Thire couldn’t answer her, she continued. “Fox, you said you lost your blaster in the explosion. But when I was targeted by that speeder bomb your blasters were fine and you were much closer to that than you were to the thermal detonator.”

“Are you saying I shot him then what, blew up the building myself?” Fox laughed in disbelief. “I think I would remember.” Then his expression fell, and he looked back at Thire.

“Would you remember?” Riyo prompted.

Fox shook his head. “This conversation doesn’t leave this apartment. For the sake of the Emperor, this doesn’t leave the apartment.”

“You think someone in the Senate is doing this.” Thire said.

“I think it’s someone close to the Emperor. One of his aides? Are you certain that it’s not Darth Vader, Thire?”

“Vader was off-planet when Lor Hano was killed.” Anakin Skywalker had been on Oba Diah at the time. “I’m certain it’s not him. He would’ve just killed us instead.” He would’ve killed Thire the moment he stepped out of the immolation chamber. Thire could barely remember hunting down Master Yoda, but he could clearly remember what had followed the hunt. Mustafar. Plastoid melting heat. He remembered kneeling in the burning sand over a body that burned just as hot. A body whose face he recognized from meetings in the Chancellor’s office.

“You know him better than we do.” Riyo said before Fox could question Thire further on the Sith Lord. “Even after, well, last night, you still prefer his presence over the Emperor?”

“If serving the Emperor comes at the cost of my mind, yes. The Emperor is a good man, but I think Stone was right. I think I’m allergic to him.” Thire watched Fox reach up to touch the fresh scar across his lip. The Guard wasn’t the same without Stone. Life wasn’t the same without Stone. Both Thire and Fox were commanders, but Fox was also his commanding officer. Each of them had had a very different relationship with one another.

“I’m sorry, Thire. I should h-.”

Thire waved away Fox’s apology. “It comes with the territory. I accept your apology, but I don’t need your justification spiel. I know it’s because you were busy with Riy- with Senator Chuchi.”

“Riyo is fine, Thire.” Riyo said with a smile, placing her hand on his shoulder for a moment before pulling back. Now that the tension in their conversation was waning, her skittishness around him was returning. “You’ve slept on my couch. I believe that that threw all formalities out the window.”

Thire couldn’t help the light laugh that escaped him. Possibly, his first laugh in months. “We are in agreement there, Riyo.”

“And I believe that we are all in agreement that we need to find out who has been pulling the strings of this operation for months.” Fox said. “My first missing memory not from a traumatic head injury was after the bombing at the Jedi Temple. Thire?”

Thire shook his head. “I don’t know.” He had a clear timeline of his life until his promotion to commander. But after that, fragments. A few clear memories, mostly in the evenings; laughing with Fox and Stone in the barracks, some soft-spoken conversations with Jek and Rys, a conversation in the museum with his brothers and Riyo, the crack of plastoid against marble, the screech of heels against that same marble as they dragged Riyo away. After that, the fragmentation began in earnest. The scent of blaster-fire burned flesh and bacta. His wound or Fox’s? There hadn’t been a scar on his arm before, it must’ve been his. He had been told that there was an interrogation that he conducted on the bounty hunter that he’d brought in. It was because of that interrogation that Fox went to arrest Lor Hano. And then Lor Hano was dead and all of his files were destroyed. Any evidence of his supposed crimes was gone. More fragments. He had woken up in Stone’s arms on many nights, but he couldn’t remember why he’d needed comforting. Now, he believed that he might understand. Sometimes Fox was there, often he wasn’t. Thire thought he may have collapsed once. There were fragments of Jek, Rys, and Riyo floating around but they didn’t form a cohesive narrative. He had depended entirely on his immaculate records in his office to keep the work he did from day to day straight. Then there was order sixty-six and Mustafar. Thire wrenched himself back out from his thoughts. “After the bombing. Sometime after my promotion.”

“Well then, let’s start a list of everyone I had contact with starting at that time and compare that to who you see on a daily basis.” Fox was taking over as the commanding officer now. Thire let him. It was his right after all. “We’ll take this slow, we don’t want this being to know that we’re onto them. And Thire, don’t tell the Emperor yet. He may put himself at risk if he knows that he’s being played. And we can never talk about this in the Senate building. The risk of bugs is too high.”

“You can meet here.” Riyo offered. “Your men will think that you’re working late and sleeping in your offices, even if you don’t mention anything to them.”

“Ri, if we’re found out that puts a huge target on your back. I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You’re not asking. And if any being can find out about this, they can find out about us. And our relationship may be the more despicable thing to the citizens of Coruscant.”

Thire nodded and stood, making his way over to where his boots, gauntlets, and helmet lay on the floor beside the couch. When he looked back up Fox was holding Riyo in his arms, pulling her securely against his chest. He let the image burn into his memory. He had served alongside Fox for the past three years. In that time, he had seen the commander bleed, burn, and break, and through it all he never gave up on protecting his men. Thire didn’t know if his loyalty to Fox came from Kaminoan conditioning or from the man’s steadfast commitment to leading from the frontline. In the end, Thire supposed, it didn’t really matter whether his loyalty had been bred or gained, it had certainly been earned. Thire resolved to hold onto this moment, keep it as a fragment in his mind. He’d been in pieces for a long time, a few more didn’t matter if it kept his family whole. Even if he couldn’t save himself, he could save them. He could save Fox from the crushing numbness. He could save Riyo from watching him slip away. Maybe he could pick up his own shattered pieces, maybe not. Rys’ blood still stained his white gauntlets. He would have to break a little more today.

* * *

Riyo kept her eyes on the two seated clones in front of her as the speeder made its way through the Coruscant sky. With all the things she could fear right now, the one at the forefront of her mind was that she didn’t shower this morning. Instead, she had selected the most covering outfit she had in hopes of suppressing the smell of ash and blood and the unmistakable smell of clone. She couldn’t have named the smell of the clones with one word, or perhaps many words, but the scent of armor polish, plastoid, combat, Coruscant, cheap soap, ozone, salt, and fried circuitry was distinctly theirs. If another being smelled it on her, she and Fox would be found out in a heartbeat, and this time, they would be dragging Thire down with them. While any trace that still lingered across her skin was covered, her hair was not. She hoped that the sprays she had used to set her hair in place above her head masked the smell. She and Fox couldn’t be found out when he was so close to uncovering such a corruption.

They were onto something, and if they were right, all would be better. The wheels of the Empire could start turning. With whoever it was pulling the strings gone, the Senate could begin to function as it had before, if not better. They could begin to repair their relationships with worlds that had turned to the Separatists and restore peace and trade across the galaxy. The Republic had been divided, but with the right being to bring them together the Empire could be something better. The Imperial Senate could unite to pass regulation across all systems. Already, the Empire was bringing technology to impoverished worlds. A memory stirred, and she quickly brought out her datapad to make a note.

“How are you changing the galaxy today, Riyo?” Fox called back. Of course, he had seen her pull out her datapad in the mirror.

“Bringing technological advancements to the galaxy doesn’t mean that we should discard the local traditions of each world. They need to be preserved in that world’s heritage and should be used in industry in combination with the technology that we will introduce to them.”

“Is this what we sound like when we explain our job to senators?” Thire asked.

“Probably.” Riyo chirped. “When we brought industrialization to Pantora years ago to harvest our silk there were protests in favor of our traditional methods. Now, our economy is flourishing and traditionally harvested Pantoran silk is seen as a luxury. I want to bring that experience to other worlds.” When the speeder landed before the Senate she was the first one to leap out and start towards the Senate doors. Fox and Thire fell into place behind her and when she looked at their shadows that stretched at her feet she could see that they were marching in-step with one another. Likely an unconscious choice. On the rare occasions that she and Fox had walked side-by-side he had fallen into step with her almost instantly.

“Would the two of you be so kind as to escort me to my office today?” She asked.

“As you wish, ma’am.” Fox responded. Of course, he always walked with her to her office when he escorted her to the Senate, perhaps barring one or two days when there had been an emergency. But there were formalities and appearances to consider and Thire was with them today. Not that anyone would know that it was Thire. To them, he was just another guardsman in white armor. She thanked them at her door, shaking their hands and giving Fox’s hand three squeezes. They waited for her to walk into her office before they departed. However, when she opened the door a harsh mechanical breathing greeted her.

“Senator Chuchi.” The shadow from her nightmares said as he rose from her desk chair to greet them. “Commander Fox, Commander Thire.”

“Sir!” Riyo looked back to see the two commanders snap to a salute. The shadow waved his hand dismissively and they lowered their hands.

“Is everything alright, Lord Vader?” Thire asked as he and Fox stepped into the room behind Riyo. So, this was the Darth Vader they had spoken of. Suddenly, Riyo wasn’t so sure that Thire’s faith in the man wasn’t misplaced. Perhaps Vader hadn’t killed Fox at the Temple, but he had still killed his brothers.

Vader waved his hand once more and the door shut behind them. “I thought that I might find Commander Fox here, I didn’t expect you as well, Commander Thire.”

“Senator Chuchi’s alarm system was triggered last night.” Thire said without skipping a beat. “Commander Fox and I are familiar with the senator, so we both went to investigate.”

“Is this about the Jedi, sir?” Fox went straight for the throat of the matter, giving Vader no time to respond to Thire.

“The Jedi is no longer a concern to us.” Vader said, looking from Fox to Thire. “Which I believe you should be glad to hear. The Emperor tells me that one of your captains was killed by the witch. Most unfortunate.” Riyo expected Thire to bristle at the remark, but he remained motionless except for the rise and fall of his chest. Vader turned back to Fox. “Your efforts last night were admirable, if ineffective. The Emperor expects better in the future.”

“I understand, sir.” Fox gave him a terse nod.

When Vader stepped forward the two clones stepped to the side, Riyo following suit to stand next to Fox. As he walked by, Vader turned to look at her. For a moment, her blood ran cold and something inside her told her to run. Then the moment passed, and Vader’s gaze was on Thire.

“Commander, if you would accompany me.”

“Sir.” Thire cast a look towards Fox and Riyo then fall into step behind Vader as he exited the room.

When the door slammed shut, Riyo turned to Fox and grabbed his hands. “He knows.” She hissed. “He knows about us, I know it.”

“Riyo.” He squeezed her hands. “If he knew about us, I would be dead.” He pulled her to his chest and set his helmet against her head. “Things are going to get better. I promise.”

When Fox let her go and stepped back, she reached up to touch his helmet. “I trust you.”

“Sweetheart.” When she blinked up at him in confusion he continued. “ _Cyar’ika_. It’s usually translated as darling or sweetheart.”

“Fox.” She breathed, finding herself speechless. With her hand still resting on his helmet she brought his forehead down to meet hers, pressing her forehead against the white stripe that came down over his visor. “I love you.” She managed to whisper.

“And I love you.” He rose back up slowly and stroked her cheek with a gloved hand. “We’ll find that fresh air one day, I promise. We’ll find a forest. It can just be you, me, and the trees. I promise.”

Riyo knew that those were promises he might not be able to keep. But right now, with Fox standing before her, she could pretend that their fulfillment was truly up to him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter, a little bit of a time skip ahead unless more inspiration strikes me for this time.
> 
> Also, my writing drive wasn’t as high this past week as it’s been for the past few months so I doubt I’ll be popping out chapters every two days as I once was but they should be a week or less apart from each other because I still have three very big moments for this story that I am particularly inspired by. Despite that, this is this works longest chapter yet.


	6. two people sitting doing nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fox begins to lay his cards on the table as he and Thire prepare to tell the Emperor of the infiltration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This turned into a much sadder chapter than I intended. My apologies.

“White is not your color.”

Fox turned around to face Riyo with a look of fond exasperation. “I don’t think I have a color.”

“Gold, red, khaki, brown, warm natural colors. Maybe some warm greys.” She walked up to him and turned him around so that he faced the mirror again and held up her hands to his face. “Pantoran blue isn’t a bad look on you either. But stormtrooper white? Euck.”

“You know, there were talks of an all red armor.” Fox turned back around to face Riyo and leaned back against the bathroom counter. “Same design, but Royal Guard red.”

“Royal Guard red plastoid? Oh, that’s garish.”

The Coruscant Guard was the last battalion to change over from their Phase II armor into the new stormtrooper armor. Riyo now supposed that it was because they’d been debating the color. There could be no variation once a color was chosen. The only thing that set apart Fox and Thire from the rest of the men was a white pauldron with the emblem of the Coruscant Guard. The captains had been given an unembellished white pauldron, but otherwise there was a sea of white cohesion in the once colorfully armored guard.

“Yes, rather.” Fox agreed. “Though I suppose it doesn’t much matter. No one is going to see our faces.”

“It’s a stupid rule.”

“It makes the nat-borns feel like they’re part of the group.” If Fox were a cruder man, he would have spat. “We all have the same face if we have no face.”

“And that’s the biggest pity of them all.” Riyo stepped closer until she could feel Fox’s breath on her skin. She took his face in her hands and ran her eyes across his features. “That they can’t see your most beautiful face.” She ran her thumbs across his cheekbones and brought one down to his lips, where she traced his scar. “This healed nicely. It adds to your rugged charm.”

“Don’t remind me, grey hairs at fourteen.” He scoffed, lips moving against her finger.

“Only a few, it’s just stress. And I know a cure for stress.” She brought him down into a slow kiss, carefully minding the white plastoid beneath her. “And there’s more where that came from if you come back tonight.”

“If I don’t die from boredom at the Empire Day parade, you mean.” He set a hand against her hip, rubbing the bone with his thumb through the fabric.

“Yes, well, I’ll be just as bored in the audience. Politely clapping and pretending that our system isn’t already falling apart.”

"I beg to differ.” Fox scoffed. “The Empire is far more efficient than the Republic could have ever been. But in order to do that it has drawn the power away from the Senate and the people and into the hands of select beings. I really don’t see the point in keeping the senators around anymore except to be the messengers of new legislation.”

In the time of the Republic, Riyo would have disagreed. But now, she had nearly given up on making any change in the galaxy. Over the past year she had found herself increasingly frustrated with the Senate. Nobody was listening anymore, nothing was being discussed, let alone passed, senatorial meetings descended into name-calling and the blocking of nearly all legislation. Not that those hadn’t been occurring before, but, with the Emperor absent, there was no longer a voice of reason to bring them all together. “Do you think that will change when you find the mole?”

“You should see how short the list is now. We’re almost there, Riyo. And I think it’s going to change everything. We’re going to tell the Emperor this week to get his opinion on the matter.”

“I am so proud of you.” She reached up to where his blacks were visible under the plastoid, slipping her fingers into the cracks and rubbing her fingers against him. She was, she would be, proud of him. But as she watched the Senate fall apart, Riyo was beginning to lose faith in the Emperor; a doubt she didn’t dare express to Fox, whose loyalty to the man bordered on blind faith. She loved that about him, but she increasingly worried that he may one day suffer the consequences.

Fox slid his hand from her waist to her back and pulled her against him. Riyo had just enough time to slip a hand between her face and his armor. She had already put on her makeup for the day and she did not want to smear blue and purple across the new white armor. “I love you, Riyo. I don’t deserve you, but I still love you.”

“You deserve the very stars, _cyar’ika_. And I love you.” She tilted her head up to kiss his skin, her lips landing on his jaw. “But you also need to clean my lipstick off before you leave this place.”

“Nobody will know.” He reached for a towel anyways. “Strictly speaking, I’m not allowed to remove my helmet in my office anymore, even when it’s just me and the door is shut. Only in the barracks.”

“And who is going to enforce that rule? The guard?”

“They’d lynch me if they were given the chance.” Fox scoffed. When the Empire had started phasing out the clone troopers and bringing in other beings, Riyo had been alarmed at the animosity Fox had shown towards them when he conversed with her. She’d found out very soon that it was mutual. What she had originally taken to be Fox at his worst, stressed and underappreciated, turned into guardsmen dying because the new stormtroopers would not take Fox’s orders. Riyo didn’t know which of the deaths were worse; those from disobeying orders or from friendly fire. Jek had nearly been decommissioned from a blastershot to the shoulder from one of his men. What she knew was certainly worse though, was how Jek wasn’t sure if he wanted to have survived.

"Do you think that will change?” She ventured. The Pantoran elections were coming up in the next month and she was of half a mind to withdraw her name from the ballot. One half felt like she was forsaking her people if she did so, the other half felt that she was forsaking Fox if she did not.

Fox sighed, and for a moment his façade fell, and he looked far older than his years. “I don’t know. But I swore an oath.”

“To the Republic, not to the Empire. They’re not the same. You yourself told me that you thought we may have lost the war. Do you still think that?”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. Then he gathered himself back together and brushed a stray hair away from her face. “I do know that I have a duty to protect my brothers and to protect the now emperor. That is the oath I swore. But to you, I swear that I would break my oath if you asked.”

“Fox. I could never ask you to do that” She looked away from him, blinking back tears from her eyes. She did not want to apply her eyeshadow again. “I would never.”

“You don’t have to ask. The galaxy is changing, and like you said, I never swore an oath to the Empire. But I cannot choose between you and my brothers.”

“I’m not going to choose for you.” She scoffed.

“Riyo, if I stay here, I will die.”

She met his eyes and found that he was crying. Her lips moved to form his name, but she found herself unable to speak.

“Riyo, I’m asking you to save me because I don’t have the strength to save myself. If I stay here a day longer than this investigation lasts, I-.” He stopped, bringing his hand to his face. After a moment, he continued. “If I stay any longer, I will die.”

“Why didn’t you say anything sooner?”

“I didn’t realize the truth of the matter myself until today. If you can’t do it, I understand, and I will hold no grudge against you. If anything, I’ll be relieved. But if you don’t, I am going to die a traitor to the Empire.”

That was not the outcome she was expecting. “Fox, what’s going on?”

“I’ll tell you later. I need to go, or I’ll be late.” He gently squeezed her shoulder and stepped past her back into her apartment.

“Fox!” She followed him into the living room and watched him slip on the new helmet.

“I’m not going to do anything stupid today, Ri. I’m sorry to leave like this, but I need to go. I’ll see you this evening.” He said, his voice modulated by the helmet. It was not the right modulation, it was a new one, and it was not his voice.

“Come back to me, Fox.” She threatened.

“I will, I promise.”

Riyo bit down on her fingers to stop the flood of tears that threatened to spill from her as soon as the door shut behind Fox. He’d never broken a promise to her yet, but she couldn’t remove the ‘yet’ from that line of thought.

* * *

Thire sighed and leaned his back against the metal of his bunk, letting the datapad in his hands fall to his chest. The parade was in an hour, the guard would be assembling soon. He himself was to guard the Emperor. He and the Royal Guard. He and his brothers. As soon as the ranks of the Coruscant Guard were open to nat-borns, the best of his and Fox’s men had been moved to the Royal Guard. While Thire missed them, he was glad that the burden of their care had been taken from his shoulders. If they died, their blood wouldn’t be on his hands. Not like Rys’. Thire had painted his gauntlets red that week. Those gauntlets were gone now, replaced by shiny new ones that had yet to see combat. The shininess of the new armor made his skin crawl. Thire had outgrown shiny armor a long time ago.

“Thire.”

Thire looked up to see a similarly dressed man approach him, though his pauldron was fully white. “Jek.”

Thire swung his legs off the bed to allow his batchmate to sit beside him, watching how Jek avoided putting weight on his left arm as he sat down. One millimeter. One millimeter to the side and Thire would have been the last of their batch.

“Still journaling?”

“Less than before.”

In the months following Order 66 his mind had seemed to return. The fragments were still there, but in the recent months he had found them growing larger and larger until he could remember whole days again. It felt good, but he hadn’t lost his resolve to bring their cause to justice.

“Is that good?”

Thire bit the inside of his mouth. “I don’t know. How are you?”

“Well, I don’t think that this ARC trooper training is going to happen anymore.” Jek scoffed. “It’s been months since I was supposed to report, and with all this going on and my shoulder, I just don’t see it happening anytime soon.”

“I don’t think there’s anyone around to teach you anymore. Everything has been shut down.”

Jek turned his gaze away from Thire. “It should’ve been Rys.”

Thire sighed, taking his brother’s hand. “I know.”

“Thire?”

“Jek?”

“Let’s die together.”

Thire looked up to meet Jek’s gaze. “Okay. But that’s a lot to ask of our men, hitting two targets?”

Jek’s face broke into a sad smile. “You have a point. Consider, one of us is an innocent bystander and the other one is standing behind them.”

“Oh, oh that could work.” Thire found himself laughing despite the dark reality of the situation. “Anyone but the aggressor.”

“Anyone but the aggressor.” Jek echoed, squeezing Thire’s hand. “Thire, we’re so old.”

“Fox is getting grey hairs.”

“No!”

* * *

“Jek doesn’t believe you’re greying.”

Fox titled his helmet slightly in Thire’s direction. “I’m not greying.”

“You’re turning into a silver fox, Fox.”

“If I could throw a punch right now, I would.” They hadn’t drilled in four years and Fox had forgotten how stiff one’s joints became during a parade. On Kamino, they had drilled for hours. But that had been in a different armor. Their armor had been heavier then, but tighter and more form-fitting. It had given them the support needed to stand still for hours on end. The stormtrooper armor felt like a misshapen hunk of plastoid that tugged down in the wrong places. Considering, Fox had to give the new stormtroopers some credit. There had been less fidgeting and complaining than he thought there would be. Then again, perhaps standing around and looking pretty was all they were good for.

“I’d welcome it. I almost miss the war. I’d give anything for a bounty hunter to try to kidnap a senator right about now.”

“Only because you weren’t the one who was nearly gutted.”

Thire nodded slowly. “Yeah, that might have changed my perspective on things.” He glanced around the empty senate halls before he continued. “Do you feel ready to tell the Emperor about this?”

“Yes.” Fox answered almost immediately. “I’m ready to end this.”

“What if he doesn’t listen to us?”

Fox stopped, and Thire turned around to face him. “Thire, if I ever betrayed the Empire, would you shoot me?”

“Fox, are you okay?”

“Would you shoot me?”

“I- I couldn’t.”

Fox shook his head. “You should.”

“What are you plotting?”

“Worst-case scenario situations. We shouldn’t need to deploy them.” Fox wrapped an arm around Thire’s shoulders and they continued down the halls. “Don’t worry about me.”

Thire was unable to form a response before they rounded the corner to the Emperor’s office. The Royal Guards present stepped aside to allow them access and they entered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heads up- The next chapter will be just as bad, if not worse, (it will be a very different pain though), but this is still tagged "angst with a happy ending"! We'll get there.


	7. if tomorrow it's all over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fox and Thire tell the Emperor of their suspicions and find themselves facing the consequences.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get a neck brace for the emotional whiplash, we’re going on a roller coaster of sadness.

“Your Majesty.” Thire greeted as the two men stopped and snapped to a salute.

“Commander Thire, Commander Fox.” The Emperor responded, turning from where he stood at the window with Darth Vader to face them. Thire could’ve sworn Vader had tilted his helmet ever so slightly in recognition. Thire hadn’t seen the man in some time, not since the walk back from Senator Chuchi’s office nearly eleven months ago. “I am told that you had some information for me.”

The brothers lowered their hands. Fox was the first to step forward. “Sir, Thire and I believe that there is an infiltration into our government. We have compiled a list of possible threats within your inner circle.”

“How long has this investigation been going, Commander?”

“Just under a year.” Thire spoke up, hoping to draw Vader’s gaze away from Fox. He wanted to keep the two as far away from one another as he could, but he couldn’t remember why.

“We didn’t want to overwhelm you at the time, sir.” Fox continued. “But now, we’re certain that one of these beings is acting against the interests of our government and has perhaps done so since the time of the Republic.”

There was silence as the Emperor looked from his men to Darth Vader. Thire’s neck twitched as he felt something reach out into his mind. Not Vader. He had become acquainted with the feeling of Vader’s connection to the Force when he had been slammed into the wall and questioned on the relationship of Fox and Riyo’s relationship. Just another fragment. After that, Vader had disappeared and to the best of Thire’s knowledge had never spoken of the matter again. Not that Thire’s forced cooperation had mattered, Vader had had a hologram of Thire’s two idiots kissing on Senator Chuchi’s couch. Thire blinked. He hadn’t remembered that detail before.

“Commander Fox, you have never let me down. But it is late. Shall we discuss this matter in the morning when the sun rises on our year-old Empire?”

“Yes, sir.” Fox nodded, taking note of the polite dismissal, and turned to leave. Thire began to follow after him.

“Commander Thire.” The voice of the Emperor stopped him. “Would you stay a moment more?” The Emperor gestured to the couches before his desk.

Thire and Fox exchanged a quick glance. It wasn’t like Thire could say no. “Yes, sir.” Thire walked over to the two men. By the time he arrived, he had heard the door shut behind Fox.

“Sit, Commander. I must make a call.”

Thire did as he was told, slinking down to sit on the plush material of the red couches that gathered around the Emperor’s desk. He spared another glance to Darth Vader, who had yet to speak. When he did, he felt Vader’s familiar pry in his mind, confirming that it was not him who he had felt earlier. He jolted back to reality when he heard the next words out of the Emperor’s mouth.

“… kill Commander Fox.” Thire couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. “He will be the stormtrooper escorting the Pantoran senator tomorrow morning. If you like, you may track him from her residence but kill him on the steps of the Senate. I want to make a point.”

“Your Majesty.” His shock gone, Thire was on his feet before the comm had ended. “Why?”

“I’m afraid that Commander Fox is meddling in affairs that he should not be.” The Emperor said calmly, as if they were discussing anything but homicide.

“Sir, if this is about the mole then we can end this investigation at once.” Thire moved around the desk to stand before the Emperor as he spoke. “We still have a list of names; we can frame somebody, then the entire affair will be forgotten. Please, don’t kill him, I beg you.”

The Emperor turned to fully face Thire. “Then beg, Commander.”

Thire fell to his knees, looking up to the Emperor. “Don’t kill my brother.”

The Emperor reached down and removed Thire’s helmet, letting it fall to the ground beside him. He stroked a hand down Thire’s cheek, stopping to cup the bottom of his jaw. With his head tilted up at such an extreme angle, his neck fully exposed, Thire felt afraid. A tear slid down his cheek as he finally recognized the presence in his mind.

“It’s you.”

The Emperor tenderly wiped the tear from Thire’s cheek with his other hand. “And so it is.” His grip tightened on Thire’s jaw as he pressed his other hand against Thire’s forehead.

Thire looked to Vader, still standing behind the Emperor. “Help me, don’t let him do this!” But Vader didn’t move, and Thire found the Emperor’s touch to be growing warmer. “Please, he’s my brother! Please…”

Thire jolted awake. He stood up and immediately stumbled to the floor. The Emperor was beside him in a heartbeat. “What happened?” Thire managed to say.

“You collapsed.” The Emperor said, helping Thire back onto the couch. “Commander Fox was just telling me how you have discovered a traitor among us. After he left, you just dropped.”

“I don’t remember.” Thire looked around the room. It was empty, save for the Royal Guard. Something wasn’t right, there had been someone else here before.

“Yes, he said that’s been happening. Not to worry, the commander is on his way to arrest the traitor as we speak. Everything will be better soon.”

Thire felt a warm calm come over him. “Everything will be better soon. Of course, thank you, Your Majesty.”

“No, thank you, Commander.” The Emperor straightened up and moved to sit at his desk opposite Thire. “Your efforts today have been most admirable. It’s a pity that you won’t be there to see their result, but such is life.”

* * *

Fox was greeted by a rush of blue and purple when he opened the apartment door. He dropped his helmet unceremoniously on the ground and picked Riyo up into his arms when she reached him.

“I thought you’d be coming home right after the parade. I was so worried.” Her arms around him were beginning to put pressure on his neck, but he ignored the discomfort and pulled her closer to him.

“I told you I’d come back. Thire and I had a meeting with the Emperor.”

“You told him about the mole?”

“Yes.”

Her grip around him relaxed and he set her down on the ground before him.

“How did he take it?”

“He wanted to discuss it in the morning. I think I was right.”

Riyo’s expression morphed back into one of concern. “Right about what, Fox?”

He reached over and tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear. “I’m a coward. Can I tell you in bed?”

Her brow sunk further into worry and she gave him a sad nod. The sight broke Fox’s heart, he’d have a hard time doing this.

By the time he’d pulled off his armor and blacks, setting out a fresh pair of blacks for the next day and arranging his armor for a quick assembly, Riyo was already in bed, watching him cautiously. When he returned to her side, she reached up to him and pulled him down beside her.

“Please hold me.” He begged.

"Okay.” She whispered as she turned onto her side, allowing him to curl up beside her, press his forehead against her chest, and wrap his arms around her waist. She lay her arms around his shoulders and began to run the fingers of one hand slowly through his hair. “What’s going on, love?”

Fox sighed. “I think that the Emperor knows who the mole is. I think he’s the one that put it there as part of a larger conspiracy. What I can’t figure out is why.”

“Political power? Most of us aren’t assigned our rank at birth, Fox.”

“I think it goes deeper than that. There’s something I’m missing, but I don’t think that matters in the end.”

“Why not?”

Fox tried to focus on the sensation of Riyo’s heartbeat against his skin. “He’ll be dead. I’m going to use him to find the mole, bring them together into the same room, and kill them.” He could feel her heartbeat begin to speed up under his touch. “After that, the Royal Guard will either shoot me dead or arrest me and formally execute me for treason. Though I’d much rather Thire shoot me first. He’s a good shot, it would be quick.” It would be fitting for him to die in the same way that Fives had, at the hands of his brother.

He felt Riyo’s hand still in his hair as her grip on him tightened. “You don’t have to die, Fox.”

“I don’t know how to make a sacrifice without laying down my life, Riyo.” He laughed dryly. “Besides, it’s what I was born to do. My life is all I have in this galaxy, and I don’t even own it. But I’d tell you the night before I do it. I have had so many brothers leave my life without any warning; I couldn’t willingly do that to you. And I’m still a coward. I would give you the opportunity to talk me out of it, and if you couldn’t then I would try to spend one last night in your arms.”

“Is that what this is?” Her voice quivered as she spoke.

“No. I still need to find the mole first. Besides, I think I’d paint my armor beforehand to look more like myself. I could wear my phase two armor, make a statement, but it would be much easier to die in stormtrooper armor, the new plastoid weave offers no protection.” He had seen firsthand how easily any blast cut through the ‘armor.’

Riyo gently loosened his hold around her waist and slid down so that she was face-to-face with him. “You really think that your options are either to die or to abandon the Empire to corruption? There’s got to be a third option, Fox.”

“I’ve made my peace with it.” He reached a hand up and brushed away a loose strand of hair from her eyes. “I was afraid this morning, but I’ve made my peace with it. Dying is easy. My only regret would be leaving you behind. But maybe that’s what’s best for you.”

Anger flashed over her features. “You don’t get to decide what’s best for me.”

“No, I don’t. But is loving a man who will die long before you really what you want? My love for you is selfish, Ri, I have nothing that I can give you. I own nothing, not even my own body. The Empire wants to sterilize all of us clones in a few months. I can literally give you nothing.”

“Give me your life, Fox. Your life and your love, that’s all I want.” She sat up and pulled him up after her, taking his hands in her lap. “Run away with me. You promised me that we would find some fresh air, a forest, let it just be us and the trees. I’ll retire as a senator. We’ll run away and go live in a cabin in the woods on some backwater Outer Rim planet. Let me save you for once.”

For a moment, Fox considered trying to hide the tears welling in his eyes from Riyo, then he found that he couldn’t. He closed his eyes and let them begin to fall. She pulled him forward, tucking his head into the crook of her neck and wrapping her arms around him. He’d sworn to her that he would break his oath to the Republic if she asked, and she had asked. In a way, he wished she hadn’t. It would’ve been far, far easier to die. “Okay.”

Then she was pulling him down once more to lay across her, still holding his head in the crook of her neck. He slipped an arm around her as he tried to bury a soft sob in his throat. Once, his oath to the Republic and his love for Riyo had been the same. Everything had been easy when his love and his loyalty intertwined. Now the Republic was gone, living on in the fragments of his once-numerous brothers and in the far-away senators who roamed the buildings of Coruscant, and Riyo was no longer a part of that system. Or maybe, she was still the Republic. While her optimism had been dimmed under the Empire, it hadn’t fully extinguished. She was still the voice of reason that he had watched, guarded, and finally, loved, over the Clone Wars. Maybe he wouldn’t be breaking his oath after all.

He turned his focus on her breathing, the beat of her heart against him, until he fell asleep.

* * *

Fox smiled fondly as he watched Riyo arranging her hair from the doorway to the bathroom. He couldn’t begin to understand how the strands were supported, but they were. When she had finished pinning down a few flyaway hairs he stepped forward and leaned back against the counter in front of her.

“What are you thinking?” She beamed at him. Only he got to see her like this, and he never wanted anyone else to know how beautiful his goddess was when she was still blinking sleep from her eyes.

“A lot of things.” He admitted. “But there’s one in particular that’s bothering me.”

“What’s that?”

Her look of polite curiosity turned into another beaming smile as he leaned over to kiss her. She cupped his face in her hands as their lips worked slowly against each other and she ran her thumbs over his cheekbones when they had pulled apart.

“One more month,” she mused, “then you’re really mine.”

"I suppose that I will have to arrange my own death after all.”

“Morbid.” She pulled away from him and he followed her from the bathroom to the living room to watch her slip on her shoes.

“I’m sure Jek will have some ideas. He’ll want to poison me or something to that effect.”

“You’ll regret all the times you’ve been a horrible boss.”

When Riyo rose from the couch, Fox met her and wrapped an arm around her waist to lead her towards the door. “I’m an amazing boss.”

“I’ve watched you throw Rys into a garbage can, Fox.”

Fox shrugged, picking up his helmet from the floor and putting it on. “That has nothing to do with my leadership skills.”

Riyo practically pushed him out of the door, following right on his heels. “And the new helmets don’t affect your aim.”

“Not if you know what you’re doing.”

They fell silent as they made their way to the speeder park. While Riyo’s neighbors had never minded her red-armored clone escort, Fox couldn’t help but notice how they already avoided him so soon after the switch to white. They didn’t speak again until they were in the air.

“Where do you want to live?” Riyo asked him. “We can’t stay on Pantora, I would bring too much attention upon us.”

“I don’t know.” Fox would be the first to admit that he knew nearly nothing of the galaxy. “Somewhere far away from where the war was. Perhaps somewhere they won’t recognize me as I am.”

“We’ll have to start looking into that, you know.”

“I know.” Fox glanced over to see that Riyo had her datapad out.

“No war, won’t recognize a clone, beautiful forests, probably not Hutt-controlled space either, preferably a native language that our vocal chords can produce. Anything I’m missing, Fox?”

"No, I believe that covers it.” Fox felt something rising in his chest that he hadn’t felt in a long time, hope. But there was also the all too familiar pang of sadness that sat upon him. He would be leaving behind his brothers. He knew that they would forgive him, would gladly send him on his way with Riyo, but he could never forgive himself for leaving them to die under the Empire.

They fell into a more comfortable silence as Riyo began to make a list of planets for consideration. It felt surreal. That feeling stuck with Fox through the landing and as they began to make their way up towards the Senate. Fox had argued against the new parking system, it left the senators too exposed as they made their way from their speeders to the building, but he had ultimately been disregarded in favor of reallocating what had been the parking garages.

Riyo stopped suddenly and he mirrored her.

“Riyo, what it is?”

At the source of the reflection on the Senate building, a scope was narrowing in on the back of Fox’s head.

“I thought I saw something.”

Above them, a finger depressed the trigger.

Fox took a step forward. “I don’t see a-.” His sentence ended in a gasp as a hot line of pain traced from the left of his spine through the center of his torso. “Riyo.” He stumbled forward, hands moving to cover the wound.

But Riyo was already there, wrapping her arms around his chest and lowering him gently until he was kneeling before her. The scent of melted plastoid was beginning to reach him, and he spared a look down to the exit wound beneath his hands. Blood was beginning to seep from the burning hole. There shouldn’t have been blood. Something important had been hit. He pressed his hands back against it, gritting his teeth. For something so small, just a little larger in size than the muzzle of his blaster, it was causing a large amount of pain. This amount of energy would have never penetrated the old armor of the guard in full, the most it would’ve done would’ve been to leave a small burn on his back, the rest of its energy dissipated. It had taken five shots like it to fell Thorn. Thorn. Fox wondered if this was how Thorn had felt before the last shot hit his chest. But Thorn had died alone. Fox would die in the arms of his love.

There was the sensation of air on his face and he looked up to meet Riyo’s eyes as she set his helmet aside. If she said anything, it was lost to him. Fox took her in for the last time. He wanted those golden eyes to be his last sight. Now that he had stopped moving, the second shot would soon hit him and finish the job. But in the seconds that stretched into years, he could gaze upon Riyo. Fox knew that the Pantorans worshipped a moon goddess. Surely, that goddess was her. He wanted to raise his hand to her face, run his fingers through her celestial purple hair one last time, but he couldn’t find the strength to lift his arm.

The second shot never came.

As the strength continued to drain from his body, his knees began to slide out from under him and he fell to the duracrete beside Riyo. He caught himself with his right arm, the left one still gripped over the wound. He clutched it tighter to himself as nausea rose in his throat. His stomach heaved. He hadn’t eaten anything today, there was no food to throw up. But there was blood. Something important had definitely been hit.

Fox felt arms wrap around his upper torso and pull him away. He found himself falling backwards into a familiar embrace and let his head fall to the side to rest against Riyo’s cheek. He brought his right hand back to the wound and found it resting on top of one of Riyo’s hands.

“Ri, I- I- I-.” He couldn’t raise his voice to begin the word love. “ _Ner cya-_.” He couldn’t finish that either. His vision was beginning to tunnel as the pain in his chest rose.

“Fox.” She sobbed.

He slipped his fingers around her hand the best he could considering the torrent of blood that now spilled from the wound and squeezed it three times.

“I love you too.” She sniffed and pulled him tighter to her chest.

The pain was beginning to fade now. Some part of him was aware that his breathing had slowed down, but another part didn’t care. The pain was leaving. If he could have stopped time and made a list of every serious injury he had incurred in his life this would have to be the second most painful. The first being when he was nearly eviscerated by bounty hunters. He had been surrounded by his brothers then. Stone, Bravo, whoever it had been who had kept Fox’s hands pressed to his stomach before the medics arrived. Now, it was just him and Riyo. His vision was beginning to fade, and he closed his eyes.

“Fox, stay with me, Fox! I love you. I love you, don’t leave me, Fox.” He could still hear Riyo’s voice, but there was another voice now, a voice that sounded like his brothers, that told him to stop fighting. “Stay with me, Fox.”

With every sound of his name he fought to reach her, but there was something warm rising in his throat that held him back. It didn’t hurt. Nothing hurt anymore. He tried to reach out to her, to take her hand one last time, but his grip on his body was fading and he was unable to move his hands. He was vaguely aware of a new voice joining Riyo’s, but couldn’t tell whose voice it was. He focused on Riyo’s voice until that too began to fade away.

Fox’s last conscious thought was of the night before, when he fell asleep in Riyo’s arms with the hope of a new life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don’t want this to get toooo long (its the longest chapter in this story by about 1,000 words) so I’ll just take a break here. That’s definitely why I cut it there. Definitely.


	8. it will be entirely forgotten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the wake of the attempted assassination, Riyo finds support in the other members of the Coruscant Guard.

“Commander Fox has been shot!”

Jek shot to his feet. “Where?”

“In front of the Senate, sir.”

“Have medics been called?”

“Yes, but sir-.” The stormtrooper was shoved to the side as Jek moved towards the door.

Jek sprinted out of the Guard offices, ignoring the chorus of questions his men were trying to ask. He didn’t have any answers for them. He opted for the stairs instead of the turbolifts, they were less crowded and would most likely be faster. In the lower halls of the Senate, the crowds weren’t an issue. They parted before him in a seamless wave until he found himself on the front steps of the Senate. At the bottom of the stairs he could see a Pantoran holding a stormtrooper in her arms. Jek was a little surprised to see that no crowd had formed around them, beings were simply walking past the sight and very few threw a glance their way. Their disinterest made his blood boil. He sprinted down the stairs, crashing to his knees beside Riyo and throwing off his helmet- damn the rules.

“Stay with me, Fox. Please, stay with me.” Riyo was pleading. Jek looked to Fox for any response and found none. Blood coated the both of them. Jek took a note of the amount, not immediately fatal, and reached to take Fox’s vitals, weak but still there.

“Riyo, I need to look at his back, okay?” Jek tried to speak as calmly as he could in the situation. He didn’t want to talk down to her, but he didn’t want to scare her either.

Riyo nodded and loosened her grip around Fox’s body so that Jek could turn him over in her arms. He took note of the positioning of the wound and set Fox back down. “The shot missed his spine and aorta. He’s bleeding from the mouth, was he coughing?”

“No.” Her gaze was distant, and Jek further softened his voice.

“Riyo, I need to know what happened.”

“He- he threw up.”

“Stomach.” Jek moved his hands to the front of Fox’s torso. “Not the intestines, but it must’ve hit something else. The stomach doesn’t bleed like this, not even from a knife.”

“Is he going to die?” Jek looked up to meet Riyo’s eyes. He could see how hard she was trying to hold herself together and reminded himself that she wasn’t as numb to injury as he had become.

“He needs a bacta tank.” It was all he could say. He couldn’t give her false hope. Even if Fox made it to a bacta tank, any internal spillage could lead to a soon-fatal infection that he would be left to die from. Even the commander of the guard was still a clone. There was a limit to how far they would go to save his life. “Riyo, Senator Chuchi, who would target him?” Jek had suspected that his commanding officers had been onto something, and now it seemed that his suspicions were confirmed.

Riyo shook her head in response. Either she didn’t know, or she didn’t want him to know. He suspected the latter, there was a cold fire blazing in her eyes despite the tears.

Jek heard the sound of an approaching siren and he looked up to see a medical transport heading towards them. “Senator Chuchi, I’m going to stay with Fox and make sure he gets the care he needs. Go to your office, Thire will come get you.”

She nodded and clasped her arms around Fox for a moment in farewell. “Jek. Don’t let him die.”

A team of medics was upon them before Jek could respond and he found himself moving towards the medical transport to keep up with the responders. The only response he could give Riyo was a last look over his shoulder as he climbed into the transport beside Fox. He turned away from the windows, refusing to look back but trying not to look at the wound the medics were uncovering as they cut Fox’s armor off. He focused on Fox’s face instead. Thire had been right about the grey hairs; a few shone bright in the lighting of the transport. Jek let out a sigh. Now that the adrenaline was fading, the pain in his shoulder was beginning to come back. He wondered if Fox lived, would he be killed later by the misdirected friendly fire of his own men? Fox had always led from the front, a view he had instilled in Jek, he would always be in the path of fire. Jek knew that if Fox didn’t die today, he would die soon anyways- either as a target for assassination or from a poorly aimed shot during a raid. Perhaps as a victim of Darth Vader. Jek had never seen Rys’ body, but he had seen the haunted look in Thire’s eyes when he’d returned to the barracks with bloody gauntlets and wordlessly curled up at Jek’s side. But they’d still had each other, Riyo would have no one if Fox died. Jek decided that if Fox didn’t die today, he would have to kill him.

* * *

Riyo paced back and forth in her office, clinging to her comm. She’d heard nothing from Jek, and Thire had yet to join her. Her robes were becoming cold to the touch, and the tang of blood filled the air around her, moving with her as she paced. Her mind was empty, no thoughts raced through it but the remembrance of the touch of Fox’s head on her cheek as she’d held him. She’d seen him bleed before on the floor of the Senate. She’d watched blood drip from his glove onto the carpet as he was rushed away by medics. But that was different. That had ultimately been his doing, his choice to place his body between the bounty hunters and the senators. This time, he’d been given no choice. She’d realized as soon as she turned to see him clutching his chest that he had been right. There was a mole. He’d found the mole. And they’d known.

“Riyo?”

She turned to see Commander Thire entering her office, hesitantly removing his helmet after the door had closed behind him. She choked back a sob and flung herself into his arms. She wished she could pretend that he was Fox. She should’ve been able to pretend that he was Fox. But to her, they would never look the same.

“Let me take you home.”

“But the Emperor-.”

“Has been informed of the situation. It’s a slow day, I trust my captains, let me take you home.”

Riyo nodded and allowed Thire to steer her back out into the halls of the Senate. She didn’t speak again, and he didn’t address her, until they were back in her speeder and flying over Coruscant.

“Who is the mole?” She asked.

“We haven’t found them yet.”

“Yes, you have. Who did you see yesterday?”

Thire paused, and she knew that his face would be drawn up in a look of concentration under his helmet. She had seen that look many times over the past year as he and Fox had gone through the list of the Emperor’s staff. “ _Haar’chak_.” He hissed. “We must’ve had them. Fox will know.” He turned to look at Riyo. “He’s going to make it. I know Fox as well as I know my own batchmates. It would take the will of the Emperor himself to kill him.”

“Interesting choice of words. Fox thought the Emperor could be in on it.” She hesitated on sharing the information, but she trusted Thire. Fox trusted Thire. She wouldn’t keep secrets from him.

“No.” Thire said without hesitation. “He couldn’t be.”

“It’s just what he thought.” Riyo looked out over Coruscant, towards where she knew the Grand Medical Facility lay. It used to be the Grand Republic Medical Facility, but the name had to be changed along with the Republic. When her comm pinged, she was ready to answer it. “Yes?”

“Senator Chuchi.” Jek’s voice came through the comm. “We got him in a bacta tank. They’re starting to flush bacta through his system to ward off any infection. Can’t say he’s in the clear yet, but I’m feeling optimistic.”

“Thank you, Jek.” Riyo felt as if a huge burden had been taken off her shoulders and she let out a long, shaky breath.

“It’s the least I could do, Senator. I just want to ask one thing in return.”

“Anything.”

“Trust me.”

Riyo glanced to Thire, then back to her comm. “I do trust you.”

“Not in the way I need you to. Just, trust me.” The comm clicked off.

Riyo turned back to Thire. “I do trust him. Are you two planning something?”

“I don’t believe we are, unless I’ve forgotten.” Thire landed the speeder and followed silently behind Riyo to her apartment door. She realized that her neighbors must think that he and Fox were the same now. Before, their uniforms made them stand apart from each other. Now, it would the same stormtrooper with the commander’s pauldron coming and going from her apartment. 

Leaving Thire in the living room, she stepped into her room and grabbed the first thing that she could reach in her closet before walking into the bathroom. With the door shut behind her, she loosened the clasps and zipper of her robes and let them fall into a heap at her feet. Where she had been touched by Fox’s blood, her skin was purple, the perfect blend of red and blue. She took a moment to take the sight in. Fox would be okay. Fox would be okay, and they could still run away together. Nobody, not even the Emperor himself, could stop them.

* * *

Thire couldn’t focus. The words on his datapad wouldn’t stop moving, and while they were moving, he couldn’t read them. Jek hadn’t checked in yet. He had left an hour ago for the Grand Medical Facility to oversee Fox’s removal from the bacta tank. He had spent many of the past few days at Fox’s side and had always checked in within the first hour. Not that the clones no longer trusted medics, but there had been too many stories of clones who went missing at the facility. Thire was determined that Fox would not become one of them.

There was a hesitant knock on his office door and Thire looked up as a nat-born stormtrooper walked in.

“Sergeant.” Thire greeted pleasantly. Thire would be the first to admit that he probably played favorites. While many of the new recruits were incompetent at best, a danger to themselves at worst, Thire had developed a soft spot for the few beings who had excelled in the program. They weren’t his brothers, but they had his respect.

“Commander.” The sergeant’s voice shook and Thire leaned forward to listen. “I’ve just received word from the Grand Medical Facility, sir.”

“Please.” Thire turned off his datapad and turned his full attention to his man.

“Sir, they said that Commander Fox is dying.” The sergeant flinched as Thire stood up. It hurt Thire to see the man afraid of him, but the news he brought had cut Thire deeper.

“I must tell the Emperor.” He didn’t know what else to do. With Fox incapacitated- not dying- the Emperor was Thire’s only commanding officer.

The sergeant nodded and stepped out of Thire’s way as he exited the office. When he walked into the foyer, all helmets turned to him. Thire stopped and looked around at the sea of white. Some of the men in the room were clones, many were nat-borns, the two women who had joined the guard were certainly nat-borns. All were counting on him now. No, they’d count on Fox when he pulled through.

Thire left the room without a word, finding himself on the way to the Emperor’s office without intending so. The Emperor would be in today. Thire had memorized his schedule. He would be in his office right now.

At the door to the office Thire found himself face-to-face with an out of breath stormtrooper. He bore no rank insignia. They nodded in acknowledgment to one another and entered the room together. The Emperor didn’t glance up upon their arrival but spoke anyways. “Commander Thire, Private, what news do you bring me?”

The stormtrooper glanced at Thire for permission, then spoke, his voice betraying him to be a clone. “Your Majesty, Commander Fox is dead.”

Thire wasn’t aware he was falling until his knees hit the ground. He felt dazed. It wasn’t possible. He could hear the conversation going on around him but couldn’t follow along. He knew the words, but they didn’t make any sense together.

“… sepsis, Your Majesty. By the time they found it…”

“… horrible way to die. Thank you, Private. You…”

Thire raised his hands to cover his helmeted face as if it would stop the voices, stop the pain. He didn’t know how long he had been on the floor when he heard his name and let his hands fall to the ground.

“Commander Thire, you are to be promoted…”

Thire didn’t process the rest of the Emperor’s words. He didn’t have to. He was the last commander of the Coruscant Guard.

* * *

Riyo clutched her shawl around her as she followed Jek into the lobby of the medical facility. She was trying to wrap her head around what he had told her on the ride to the facility- a new rotation of staff, a switched pauldron, sepsis, paperwork- the words swum around in her head. She didn’t say a word as she and Jek blew past the receptionist, who must’ve recognized Jek or didn’t care if they lost their job. When she glanced up again, they were alone in a side corridor. Riyo had never cared for hospitals. She had no pleasant memories associated with them, only unpleasant and apathetic ones. She gained a new unpleasant memory as she stepped behind Jek into what had become the clone wing.

It was one long, thin room whose walls were packed with beds. Many were occupied, and she couldn’t help but read the battalion numbers as she walked through. She’d never thought of the other clones on Coruscant, and she couldn’t help but feel guilty for that. Despite Jek’s warning, her heart fell when she passed an empty bed whose paperwork read ‘CC-1010’. It rose again when they stopped at the bed of a ‘CT-96-5851’ and she spotted a familiar set of scars.

Riyo sank into the fabric of the bed beside Fox and pushed his hair back from his forehead. He looked pale and sickly, but he was alive. He slowly blinked his eyes open and smiled up at her. “Hey.” He managed.

She beamed back down at him. “Hey. I thought I’d lost you.”

“So did I.” He rasped. “Never vomited blood before. Don’t recommend. I can still taste it over the bacta.”

A light laugh shook her shoulders. “Gross. I’ll try to steer clear of that then. How are you feeling?”

“Like a drowned bantha. Lost the benefits of my rank, no more painkillers. Thanks, Jek.”

“No problem.” Jek tucked his arms behind his back, whether out of habit or to fight back a sarcastic salute, Riyo couldn’t tell. “I’ll be sending you on an unsupervised mission to a demolitions warehouse as soon as you get out of here.”

“So I’m really dead. I’ll be free.”

“That’s my intention.”

Riyo blinked tears back from her eyes, she had cried enough over the past few days and she was growing tired of her own emotions. “Thank you.”

Jek gave her a short, rapid nod. “Take a day off from the Senate tomorrow. He’ll be dismissed in the morning.”

“He needs to stay here to heal.” She protested.

“He’s just a lieutenant. They’ve done all they will.”

Riyo looked back down to Fox. He had closed his eyes once more, and with his return to consciousness had rested a hand across the wound on his chest. If his brows weren’t drawn together in pain, she would think that he was asleep.

“I’ll take care of him.” She vowed. She wouldn’t let anyone harm him again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope nothing bad happens in the last two chapters... (it won't, that's a joke! I know that no one believes me, but that's a joke, I promise. Happy ending.)


	9. to be still

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riyo, Fox, Jek, and Thire find a moment to talk about the future and to reflect on the past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait, the dialogue took so long to write in the middle third. Finding a natural conversational flow was way harder than it should have been.

Riyo glanced back into her living room, taking note of the steady rise and fall of Fox’s chest in the light of the sunset that streamed through the window. He was turned away from her, staring out onto the city, nearly silhouetted in the light. She checked the temperature of the stove a last time before walking over to the couch and sinking into the material beside Fox.

“How does it feel?” She asked as she wrapped her arms around him, pressing her head over his sternum so that she could hear his heartbeat.

“Boring. What do beings do all day?” He tenderly wrapped his left arm around her shoulders, keeping his other hand pressed against his torso. None of the painkillers Riyo had were of the potency that he needed.

“Guess we’ll find out. I’m officially off the Pantoran ballot now.”

Fox sighed and leaned his head against hers. “It feels like a betrayal.”

Riyo knew that he was speaking for them both. “Yes, it does.”

They sat in silence, watching the sunlight bounce between the glassy windows of Coruscant in a kaleidoscope of warm color. Riyo would almost be sad to leave it behind. Almost. She couldn’t help but see every building as a potential sniper perch waiting to be filled. Then she reminded herself that every assassin so far had failed. She was still alive; Fox was still alive.

There was a knock on the door, and Riyo rose to answer. She ushered the two stormtroopers inside, trying to ignore the gasp of shock from one of them. She shut the door.

“Hey, Thire.” Fox’s voice carried across the room to them.

“I thought you were dead.”

Riyo turned around to watch the men embrace, cringing at the sound of discomfort Fox made when Thire wrapped his arms around him.

“I thought I was too.”

Riyo stepped forward so that she stood next to Jek, who had remained relatively in the doorway, and threw an arm around his waist, pulling him in for a side hug. “Thank you.”

“I did my duty, Riyo. Nothing more.” He looked from his brothers to her. “What are you going to do now?”

“Return to Pantora, then find some backwater planet where they won’t recognize us.”

“What biome?”

“Why?”

“So I know where to picture you two in my head.”

Riyo looked up sadly at Jek. She felt some of the pain that Fox did at leaving behind his brothers. She’d have given almost anything to take Jek and Thire with them, more if she could’ve freed the whole Guard. They had been like family to her before the Republic fell. “Some form of forest. Somewhere with trees.”

Jek nodded. “That sounds lovely.”

Riyo turned her attention back to Fox and Thire. She remembered a different time when Thire was here. When they had first learned of the mole, the night she had almost lost Fox and had fallen asleep with the two men on the couch. That had been a year ago. That night had been full of pain. Today, watching the way the men clung to each other as if they were the other’s lifeline, she felt a small rise of hope.

* * *

Fox sat down gingerly at the small table that was pushed into the far corner of the kitchen. There was the light touch of Riyo’s hand on his shoulder, but she didn’t reach out to help him down. She knew that he was determined to be self-sufficient once more. Across the table from Fox, Jek was hesitantly raising a spoonful of soup to his mouth. Fox grinned at the perplexed look on Jek’s face at the empty spoon lowered.

“It has flavor.” Jek managed.

The other three beings laughed, though Fox found his cut short by a stabbing pain in his chest. Too much too soon.

“Yes, it does.” Riyo grinned. Fox loved to see her life this; relaxed, smiling, getting along with his brothers. He couldn’t imagine how she saw them. Did she see the same face copied and pasted with varying hairstyles like most beings did, or could she tell each one apart by the small quirks in their mannerisms? Fox was certain it was the latter. She could tell them apart in uniform, helmetless should be no problem.

“I don’t know what to think.” Jek laughed. He’d had soup before, they’d all had, and he’d on occasion eaten outside of the dining hall, Fox had taken him and Thire for caf at Mariela and Sienn’s café, but to the best of Fox’s knowledge Jek had never had any soup outside of the tasteless protein-water that passed as soup in the barracks dining halls.

“It’s very good.” Thire swooped in to cover for Jek. He was less shocked by the flavor, having occasionally eaten with Fox and Riyo over the past years throughout their investigation into the mole. “Thank you, Riyo.”

“Anything for the Commanding Officer of the Guard.” Riyo raised her drink to Thire, who slowly raised his own to touch hers. “I read the bulletin that went out this morning.”

“You deserve it, Thire. You have my utter faith that you’re the man for the job.” Fox raised his glass to join the other two. “Make sure someone keeps me updated on how well you’re doing in a few months.” While Fox still felt the guilt of leaving behind his brothers, it had lessened from before when it had been fully his choice, and he felt more at ease knowing for certain that Thire would take his place. He would have been comfortable leaving most of his staff officers in charge, but if he’d had a choice, it would’ve been Thire. He was the only commander on the guard who had not been designated such by the Kaminoans, earning his rank through his own prowess. Fox couldn’t think of a better man in these times.

Thire looked down sheepishly. “I could never replace you, Fox.”

“Don’t. The office is yours. Make it yours, and don’t worry about the things that I’ve done.”

Jek spoke up from behind a full spoon of soup. “Fox, this is exactly the inspirational _osik_ that he’s talking about. Is he like this with you too, Riyo?”

“No comment.” She laughed. “He’s right though, do keep in touch.”

“We will.” Jek promised. “So, Thire, how are you going to make the office yours?”

"Well, I’ll increase your workload for one.”

Jek laughed, but his grin quickly faded when Thire didn’t laugh with him. “You’re serious.”

Thire took a slow, dramatic sip of soup before he answered. “I think I’m going to take us back to a three-commander system. Me, Jek, and Captain Seeley.”

“You’re promoting me?”

“But you hate Captain Seeley.”

Thire scoffed at his brothers and moved his spoon around in the soup. “Seeley will keep me in line. Besides, having a nat-born in command will bring a new perspective.”

“Is this what the Emperor wants?” Riyo asked.

“The Emperor doesn’t know yet.” There was a hint of rebellion in his voice. “I don’t plan on asking his permission either. The paperwork has already been signed anyways, it’ll be official tomorrow.”

Fox scoffed. “You’re turning into me, Thire.”

“I suppose.” Thire looked to his brother. “Fox?”

“Thire?”

“What happened when we went to talk to the Emperor?”

Fox bit the inside of his lip in concern. “We told him and Lord Vader about the mole, then we decided to further discuss it in the morning. He dismissed me but asked you to stay behind.”

“I don’t remember that. I remember walking in the door, then I woke up on his couch. Darth Vader was there?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t….” Thire’s voice trailed off as his brow knit into a look of concentration.

"Thire?” Riyo reached across the table to lay a hand on his arm.

Thire scoffed and shook his head. “I thought I had something. It’s gone now.”

Fox was horrified when he realized that he couldn’t tell whether Thire was lying or not. Before, he had always known Thire’s thoughts. Now, he realized that Thire really was turning into him. He would’ve been upset if he wasn’t so proud of him.

“There is one thing I do remember, from after you left. The Emperor and Darth Vader know about you two. They’ve known for a while now.”

Fox’s breath caught in his throat.

“He’s lying.” Riyo gasped.

“Vader had a hologram. He showed me it. I didn’t remember until that night or I would’ve said something earlier. But now, Riyo, you can’t let them know that he’s alive. Staying home from the Senate, working odd hours, everything that you’ve done over the past few days, this needs to become your routine for the next month.”

Riyo nodded tersely. “I can do that.”

“Ri.” Fox found his voice.

“I can, Fox.” She turned to him. “Let me protect you for once.”

“What about my new CT number?” Fox turned to Jek. “Can I go with her?”

“I’ve already ‘killed’ CT-5851, Fox. Improperly stored munitions, there was no body and no way he, you, could have survived.”

“I can’t do nothing!”

“You are literally regrowing an organ, Fox. That’s not nothing.” Jek shot back. “You gotta be able to eat solid foods before you throw down with the Emperor.”

“Fox, I’ll be fine.” Riyo threw her arm over Fox’s shoulder and leaned against him, rubbing her hand down his arm in an attempt to calm his outburst. “I’ll be here with you for most of it anyways. I just need to clean my office and perhaps say goodbye to old friends in the Senate, the few that are left. There’s no votes being held this month, maybe a few private meetings but I don’t have much of a reason to be in the Senate now anyways.”

Thire spoke up again. “I’ll give her an escort, Fox. One of the boys who she knows. We’ll keep her safe.”

Fox looked back and forth between the three of them. “Okay. I give in.”

“When have we ever let you down?” Jek asked.

Fox shook his head and reached for his glass of water in response, letting the conversation continue without his input, allowing the opportunity to recite the list to him slip away.

* * *

Riyo took a deep breath as she stepped off the ramp of the starship, breathing in the air of her homeworld for the first time in forever. She wanted to close her eyes and let the chilly air envelop her, but she had one last duty to perform.

There was so much she wanted to say to the new senator. So many things. How to navigate the personal ambitions of the other senators, finding like-minded beings that share your desires, how to avoid burnout, where the Pantoran market on Coruscant was if one ever missed home, knowing which tasks were trivial and which would prove to be vital, all of the knowledge and wisdom Riyo had accumulated over the past four years. But she couldn’t. She was to greet the senator this one time and then the stormtrooper guard were to escort them immediately back to Coruscant. Not a moment for mentoring. Not a moment for sentimentality. She had been told that it was to minimize danger to the two of them after the failed assassination attempt that had taken the life of Commander Fox. But she knew better. Thire had let slip something beyond her worst nightmare on her last day in the Senate before swearing her to secrecy. The new secret burdened her shoulders every time she looked at the stormtrooper who currently stood on her left side. He could never know that the man who he had placed his utter trust in was the same man who had ordered his death. Riyo had found herself to be thankful for the Emperor’s treachery in that it had saved Fox’s life. But she knew that he wouldn’t see it the same way.

She shook hands with the young man who stepped up to greet her. They’d barely had time to exchange formalities before they were both being moved away. Riyo nearly protested before the light touch of Jek’s hand on her arm pulled her back to reality. She almost reached out for Fox, not realizing that in the heat of the moment that he had slipped away.

Once she was inside the statehouse she did reach out to Jek. All sentimental goodbyes had already been said out of the sight of other beings, but she clasped his hand tightly as she shook it.

“Thank you, Commander, for everything.”

“It’s been my honor, ma’am.” She was no longer a senator.

She stood where he had left her as she watched her escort march away. Back to Coruscant, back to the Empire. As she watched the painted pauldron fade out of sight in the crowd of white plastoid she hoped that they weren’t marching back to their graves.

If one less stormtrooper escorted the new senator to Coruscant, nobody noticed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter!


	10. no ballad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Riyo returns to her family on Pantora, bringing Fox into a new life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel that my writing in this chapter is hella technical but I was having a really hard time thinking in English verbs for some reason (yes, English is my first language). If anything is too weird call me out on it, but I hope that y’all enjoy the chapter and that it’s a fitting ending to the story.
> 
> ~
> 
> And there will be no grand choirs to sing  
> No chorus will come in, no ballad will be written  
> It will be entirely forgotten  
> And if tomorrow it's all over at least we had it for a moment  
> Oh, darling things seem so unstable  
> But for a moment we were able to be still  
> \- no choir

Riyo watched the outlines of silk harvesting facilities blow past them outside the windows of the train. It had been so long since she had been home that the sight was nearly foreign to her, a building that wasn’t a form of skyscraper. She turned her attention back to the man across the table from her. His skin was blue like hers, and the yellow arcs across his cheeks complimented her green arcs in such a way that they could be siblings. But if one had removed the hood over his head, his un-Pantoran hair would be revealed and their charade would be over in a moment. Though perhaps not. They had done nothing to his eyes. Though they shone golden in the right light, they would not pass for Pantoran golden all the time. Yet, Pantoran-human hybrids were possible and he had not been questioned. Perhaps his hair wouldn’t have been an issue. Right now, his eyes were fixed on the world outside the window, a new world to him.

She stood up when the train began to slow, with Fox following her lead. They had three bags between the two of them, two of which Riyo carried. Fox was healing, but she would not let him undergo the strain of carrying the heavier of the three bags. They wouldn’t have the same access to medical facilities as they had on Coruscant, and she wouldn’t dare risk his injury.

Riyo’s mother met them on the train platform, grinning from ear to ear; though her grin faltered slightly at the sight of Fox beside her daughter. She looked just like Riyo, except that the green markings on her face sat in diamonds above her brow and below her lips. Riyo set down her bags and embraced her mother before she pulled back and gestured to Fox. “This is the man I wrote you about.”

Her mother took Fox in for a few moments before extending her hand. “Kaiya Chuchi.”

Fox took her hand and shook it. “Fox.”

“No surname?”

“Mother!” Riyo protested.

“None.” Fox confirmed.

“By choice?”

“No.”

“Well, that certainly impedes my background check.” Kaiya’s face broke into a smile and Riyo allowed herself to relax as she watched the tension leave Fox’s shoulders. “Come. Let’s go home.” They followed her out to the speeder lot and boarded the one that Riyo recognized from her childhood. “So tell me, why is my daughter carrying the luggage? You look like a strong man.”

Riyo spoke up before Fox could. “He’s injured, mom.”

“Protecting you?”

“Not this time.” Fox said. “This one was entirely my doing.”

With the bags in the back seat, the three beings squeezed into the front bench with Riyo in the middle, resting her head against Fox’s shoulder.

“You’re not Pantoran, are you?” Kaiya asked once they had sped away from the station.

“No, ma’am. But the concealment of my identity was necessary.”

“Well, as soon as we get back to my house you are going to wash that face paint off so I can get a good look at you.”

Riyo could feel the muscles of Fox’s chest flex as he nodded. She wished she could lay here forever in his arms, with her mother by their side and with Pantora flying past them. But she also knew that that could never be.

* * *

It took Fox a few minutes to understand how the shower worked. Riyo had brought him soap, towels, and makeup remover for the traces the paint had left behind, but she had not told him how to work the controls. He wondered if every shower was different, or only the three that he had ever encountered.

When it came, the hot water was welcome on his skin and he took a few minutes just standing under the shower head and letting the water sooth his aches and pains. The new wound on his torso stung at the first contact with the water. He let it hurt. It was the pain of being alive. When he had scrubbed away the last of the blue from his features and the dust from the journey, he turned the water off and dried his skin. He took a few moments to look at himself in the mirror. Despite the month of near isolation, he had maintained the close-cut regulation hair and clean face that he had always had, it was as engrained in him as shooting a blaster. The only thing that set him apart from his brothers was the scars and he took a moment to trace the long one that cut through his abs. He had lost brothers for every scar, except the two on his back that had resulted from saving Riyo’s life and now the one that had saved him.

In the month of isolation, Riyo had bought him civvies, more than he could have ever worn as a member of the Guard. With his Pantoran robes set aside for the moment, he slipped on the loose red shirt and grey pants that had sat at the top of the bag. He’d never had to choose his clothes before, and it was his understanding that Riyo had taken extra care to select colors that would always work together. He could kill a being in nearly a hundred ways but wasn’t trusted to dress himself.

When he reentered the living room Riyo’s face broke into a smile. Her mother’s, on the other hand, broke into barely concealed alarm. “Riyo, this is a clone trooper.”

“Yes, he is, mom.” Riyo’s expression hardened into defensiveness.

“What is your number, Fox?”

“CC-1010.”

Kaiya’s gaze grew more alarmed. “A commander? Riyo, this is different than just bringing home a clone. This man is a weapon.”

“I don’t care.” Riyo shot back.

Kaiya looked from her daughter back to Fox. “Do you love my daughter?”

“Yes.” He answered instantly. “I would die for her in a heartbeat.”

“And he’s tried.” Riyo said with fond exasperation.

Fox gave a tight nod and turned his gaze to glance around the room. Now that the hood no longer hid his face he could take in the space, the décor, the pictures. His eyes found one of a young Riyo and her father, a man with golden arcs across his cheeks like hers. Fox was just as familiar with his file as he was with Riyo’s. They were similar after all; a Pantoran Senator who got on the wrong side of the Trade Federation, leading to an assassination attempt. But, this time, Fox had been there to throw himself between the assassin and the senator.

Finally, Riyo’s mother broke the silence. “I’m sorry. Please, sit, Fox.” She waited until he had sat beside Riyo to continue. “My daughter has told me so many wonderful things about you. I shouldn’t discard them because of what you are.”

“I’m used to worse, ma’am.” He’d been braced for far worse.

“That doesn’t justify anything. The two of you, tell me, what do you need?”

* * *

Thire barely looked up from his datapad as his brother stepped up onto his bed and lay down between him and the wall, looking over his shoulder at the datapad.

“They’re on their own now.”

“No issues?”

“None.” Jek glanced over the report Thire was typing, letting the silence sit on them for a few moments before speaking again. “Thire?”

“Jek?”

“I still think we should die together, but let’s wait a while. There’s some things I want to do first.”

Thire smiled warmly at his brother. “Me too, Jek. Me too.”

Jek took a deep breath, letting silence fall once more before he whispered to Thire. “You lied to Fox. At the dinner.”

Thire matched his tone. “That was a month ago.”

“Still, I’ve been thinking about it every day. I didn’t ask before because I could never lie to him. But now he’s gone. So, what happened, Thire?”

Thire turned off the datapad and glanced around the room before turning back to Jek. “At dinner, Fox mentioned that Darth Vader was there, at our briefing with the Emperor. But when I woke up on the Emperor’s couch it was just us in the room.”

“So Vader left? What does that have to do with anything?”

Thire lowered his voice. “When Fox mentioned Vader, I remembered what happened. I’m certain of it. The Emperor is the traitor. He’s some sort of Sith, like Count Dooku or Asajj Ventress were. He’s been the one toying with my memory, and he was the one who ordered Fox to be killed. I watched him call the bounty hunter who shot him.” Thire paused, taking in the look on Jek’s face. “Don’t ever tell Fox. He’d come running back here and get himself killed. He can never know.”

“So, what are we going to do about it?” Jek breathed.

Thire shook his head. “Nothing. We’re going to play our parts with no protest, no questions. We’re going to do everything, every horrible thing that he makes us do, and we’re going to write it down so that he can’t take the memories away from us.” Thire held up the datapad, turning it around in his hands. “We’ll back everything up so that no one can destroy it. And someday, we'll find someone who will listen.”

Jek stared at Thire with admiration in his eyes. “Can I read what you’ve written so far?”

Thire nodded and passed the datapad to Jek, curling up into his brother’s side as he began to read.

* * *

When Riyo woke, it was to an empty bed. She rolled over to where Fox had lain the night before and found cold blankets where he should have been. She sat up, glancing around the small, still unfurnished room for any sign of him.

“Fox?” She called as she slid out of bed, her bare footsteps echoing in the empty room. It was dreamlike. Everything had been dreamlike since they had left her mother’s home, nearly three weeks of a dream state. When he didn’t answer, she stepped out into the rest of the small home that she had purchased with some of what she had saved from her senatorial salary, the salary that they were depending upon until they established their own livelihood.

She didn’t find him in the rest of the home but did find the caf maker they had purchased to be warm. She poured herself a mug from what he had left behind and took it with her as she stepped outside. She hadn’t seen the home in the daylight yet. They had arrived the night before, assembled the bed, and fallen asleep without any further exploration. She glanced around the empty porch before following the stairwell down to the ground, finding the speederbay under the home empty as well, save for the fixer upper they had bought yesterday between the purchase of the home and essential furniture. She had discovered that Fox was far more technically skilled than he had ever had the occasion to demonstrate before her, and he had promised that the speeder would be good as new in a week. She supposed now that getting an early start was not part of his plan.

All other choices exhausted, she searched for the path that led to the rest of their property. She knew for certain now where he would be. She’d known where she would find him this morning since they had first set eyes on the holograms of their now home. When she rounded a large tree at the end of a side trail, she knew that she had been right.

“Good morning, _cyar’ika_.” He smiled up at her from the roots of the tree, where he had tucked himself into a mossy hollow.

“Fox.” She sighed, a relaxed smile making its way across her lips. She had never seen him so at peace before. She knew that he was still hurting, even now his hand lay across his torso, but she also knew for the first time that the galaxy would step back and allow him to heal.

“What is this called, this water?” He asked, gesturing to the sight that stretched out before them. “It’s too small to be an ocean.”

“In Basic, it’s called a lake.”

“Lake.” She watched his lips move to form the foreign word. “Thank you. Riyo, will you sit with me by this lake?” He pushed his empty mug away and gestured to his lap.

“I won’t hurt you, Fox.” She protested. In all the time that had passed since he had been shot, she had leaned against him, pressed against him, but never dared to place her full weight on him for fear of bringing him pain.

“You could never hurt me, Riyo.” He insisted.

She gave in with a sigh, setting down her own mug beside his and lowering herself into his lap, minding the middle of his torso. She leaned back against him, tucking her head under his chin and pressing her hand against his sternum to feel his beating heart.

He drew back for a moment to kiss the side of her head before tucking it back under his chin and wrapping an arm around her waist. “ _Ner ka’ra, ner me’suum’ika._ ” He whispered to her as he pulled her closer to his body. She relaxed into him, closing her eyes to listen to his body live as he looked out over the waters before them. They were finally at peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for readings and for all your views, kudos, comments, everything! This story gained a life of its own and I’m glad to have been able to tell it.
> 
> the lakes, the next chronological story in this series, is up now!  
> Summary: "Fox and Riyo are at peace. But Fox's injury has yet to heal, and they find themselves redefining who they are now that their prior identities have been stripped away."


End file.
